Shino Teabowl with Bridge and House, known as “Bridge of the Gods” (Shinkyō)

First produced at the Mino kilns during the Momoyama period (see cat. no. 98), Shino ware is regarded as a quintessentially Japanese ceramic. It is characterized by a heavy body and coarse, crackled, uneven white feldspathic glaze. The intimacy, informality of shape, and "softness" of glaze were compatible with the ideal of simplicity and artlessness treasured by the tea master Sen Rikyū (1522–1591). Although production of Shino seems to have begun in the 1580s, it was not clearly distinguished from the wares of other kilns until the beginning of the eighteenth century.[1] Because some of the wares are identified in chanoyu records as "Shino Ten'moku,"[2] some scholars believe that the name "Shino" may have been that of the owner of a particular vessel, most likely the tea master Shino Sōshin (1441–1522),[3] and that the vessel may have been a Ten'moku (Chinese-style glazed teabowl) that was white rather than the usual black brown. In the first half of the sixteenth century, white Ten'moku teabowls were manufactured either at the Seto or the Mino kilns in an attempt to reproduce the prized Korean bowls known in Japan as Ido bowls. This was the first successful attempt by the Japanese to produce white-glazed wares, and it is generally believed that Shino wares evolved from white Ten'moku.[4]

Many Shino pieces have decorations in iron brown or cobalt blue (the latter perhaps an attempt to emulate Chinese blue-and-white) that were painted directly on the wet clay body. This marks a distinct innovation in Japanese ceramics; earlier designs had been incised, stamped, appliqued, or executed in relief. Shino ware was fired in single-chambered, partly subterranean kilns in which it took at least five days to achieve the high temperature needed for vitrification. The resulting glaze was a thick, warm, uneven white; the iron glaze below the surface was unstable and showed through in different colors, depending on kiln conditions. The introduction in the early seventeenth century of the more efficient multichambered climbing kiln known as the noborigama signaled the end of Shino production at Mino (fig. 44, page 239); the glazes matured quickly (enabling more complex painted designs) and ran smooth and thin. By then, potters at Mino had shifted their efforts—presumably under the guidance of Furuta Oribe (1544–1615)—to making another, equally renowned ware, Oribe, which is distinguished by its daring and complex painted decorations (cat.no. 104).

This teabowl is typical of the Shino bowls produced before the introduction of the improved kilns. Like many examples from the late sixteenth century, it is decorated with a simple design of a bridge and a house, painted in iron oxide under the white glaze. This subject, repeated on many teabowls from the Mino kilns, is sometimes interpreted as a highly simplified rendition of the Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka, an especially popular motif for lacquerware. The tactile quality of teabowls was as important as their visual appeal. Pieces such as this one, after preliminary shaping on the potter's wheel, were subtly altered by pressing them gently with the hands while the clay was still soft. Here, the rim undulates slightly as it flares outward, and the finished object feels comfortable in the hands. It has the standard, late-sixteenth-century double-ringed low foot under a wide, flat base, so that it would sit securely on the woven-straw tatami mat when in use. Because the potter held the foot of the vessel in his hand as he dipped it into the liquid glaze, that area was left unglazed. On this bowl, the potter's small thumb mark can be seen under the image of the bridge. As on a number of vessels, two lines are incised on the wet clay inside the foot ring. These may have been made to distinguish one group of objects from others fired together in the same kiln.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Fujioka Ryōichi 1970, p. 22.
[2] See, for example, Sōjinboku ( Grasses, People, and Trees; 1626), in Sadō koten zenshū 1967, vol. 3, p. 248.
[3] Hayashiya Seizō 1967, p. 39.
[4] Fujioka Ryōichi 1970, pp. 22–25.

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Southampton. Parrish Art Museum. "Japanese Ceramics: From Prehistoric Times to the Present," August 5, 1978–September 24, 1978.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Bright Color, Bold Ink: Diversity in Momoyama Art," February 23, 1988–April 4, 1988.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Post-renovation opening exhibition: Japanese galleries," April 11, 2006–January 17, 2007.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated," March 5–June 16, 2019.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia W. Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Ake Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 2, Japanese Objects, Korean Art, Chinese Art. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 54, cat. no. 644.

Carpenter, John T., and Melissa McCormick. The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019, pp. 282–83, cat. no. 87.