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Water Jar for Tea Ceremony

Late 16th - early 17th century

Japan, Mie Prefecture

Stoneware with impressed design under glaze (Iga ware)

H. 9 1/2 including cover x L. 7 1/4 x W. 7 1/4 in. (24.1 x 18.4 x 18.4 cm)

Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.224a,b

For the tea practitioners of the Momoyama period, this water jar would have been appealing precisely because of its imperfections: the roughly square, squat form, the uneven surface and seemingly random decoration, and the irregular streaks of glaze, frozen in midstream. This container held fresh water, which was boiled in a hot brazier and then poured into individual tea bowls and briskly whisked with bright green powdered tea leaves. Iga ware water jars and flower vases, produced in a rural region in west-central Japan, were used frequently in tea ceremonies of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.