tea-jar; lid BM-1947-0418.22

Period:Unknown Production date:15thC
Materials:pottery, ivory,
Technique:glazed

Dimensions:Height: 2.25 inches

Description:
Tea-jar, with ivory lid. Made of pottery, brown glaze with mahogany splashes. With two bags (one purple, one green), lacquered wooden box, and inscribed wooden box.
IMG


Comments:唐物茶入　銘「日暮れ」Chinese tea caddy titled Higure (Twilight) with an ivory lidThis diminuitive tea caddy from Fujian Province, China, with its hand-carved ivory lid and accompanying two silk cloth bags, lacquered storage box and inscribed wooded box (not on display) attest to it having been an object of desire in Japan. Tea caddies are small jars with lids, often made of ivory, used for temporarily holding powdered green tea during tea gaterings. These jars from southern Chinese kilns were much prized in Japan and generally labelled with the term karamono (chinese objects). This particular work at some point in its history in Japan received its own name of Higure (Twilight), most probably referring to the glaze effects on the jar.Stoneware with glaze; Fujian Province, China, about 1400s禅と茶道Zen and tea gateringsThe drinking of tea forst developed in the AD 700s at the Tang court in China, where people belived it to be medicinal.In later centuries, Buddhist monks across East Asia drank tea to stay awake during all-night meditations. In Japan, Zen monks especially popularised tea drinking.By the 1400s tea was served at cultural gatehrings of many kinds.(Label copy, 2017)