Tea bowl with a landscape and poem

Ogata Kenzan’s most significant contribution to the history of Japanese pottery is the invention of numerous styles and modes of decoration, based on his education and interactions with Kyoto’s cultured merchant class. His witty ceramics gained rapid success which encouraged him to relocate his workshop to the commercial district of the city. He marketed his ceramics to a broader clientele and produced a large quantity, often featuring simpler designs. One of his styles is inspired by ink paintings, using only dark brown and light blue hues emulating the effect of ink on silk. The mountain landscapes are often based on Chinese models, furthermore Chinese poems are incorporated into the compositions. These sophisticated works reflecting the notion of recluse-scholars appealed particularly to the literati taste flourishing in the Osaka-Kyoto area in the eighteenth century. Due to its popularity the Kenzan-style was perpetuated through the nineteenth century.

This Kenzan-style tea bowl with a stylized, misty mountain landscape and fragment of a poem was inspired by ink paintings. The vessel’s clay body is covered with white slip and the decoration is executed in underglaze brown and blue-gray hues. The tea bowl is signed with the artist’s name on the inside.