If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Senufo helmet masks are the senior and most "dangerous" of Poro Society masks. Worn by the highest-ranking males, they embody supernatural powers and knowledge of magical formulae.
The southern Senufo, Fodonon group, use a baboon or antelope-baboon helmet mask called Gbôn. The most senior masquerader of the men's Poro Society (also called Pondo) wears it with a full raffia costume, grasping a long walking stick associated with women elders.
The Gbôn masquerade takes place during the final funeral ceremony of a male elder. Two Pondo society members approach the house of the deceased on their knees, in respect and submission. Rising, they lean on their walking sticks, shaking and trembling like very old people in reference to the many generations of ancestors. One of the maskers, shaking a long raffia sleeve, pretends to remove some of the thatch from the roof of the dead one's house. Since a house without a roof is no longer lived in, the deceased's life among them is finished, and his spirit should move on to the ancestral world. Afterwards, the Gbôn maskers leave upright, walking vigorously.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This is a glass inkwell with a circular metal cap. It has a square shape but the edges billow outward toward the base area and the bottom edges are rounded.
Subject Matter
As with most objects of daily use, inkwells could be modest and utilitarian or more fanciful, the latter employing lavish use of precious materials to reflect and enhance the status of the possessor. Inkwells in the UMMA collections demonstrate a rich variety of materials, including silver, crystal, ceramic, and metal. Some pre-date the emergence of the fountain pen, and many mark the transition from a quill or nib pen to the convenience of the pocket pen commonly found today. Inkwells are avidly collected by those who value the artistry that went into the creation of a beautiful object for everyday life.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This is a cut crystal inkwell with a brass collar and cap. The bottle is square shaped with starburst designs incised on the corners. The cap has a rounded shape.
Subject Matter
As with most objects of daily use, inkwells could be modest and utilitarian or more fanciful, the latter employing lavish use of precious materials to reflect and enhance the status of the possessor. Inkwells in the UMMA collections demonstrate a rich variety of materials, including silver, crystal, ceramic, and metal. Some pre-date the emergence of the fountain pen, and many mark the transition from a quill or nib pen to the convenience of the pocket pen commonly found today. Inkwells are avidly collected by those who value the artistry that went into the creation of a beautiful object for everyday life.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Among the Kuba, the women of the royal court take such raffia cloth as a ground on which to embroider and ornament with appliqued geometrical motifs in order to manufacture NTSHAKISHWEPI. These are dance skirts whose use is restricted to the same upper class women (and men). NTSHAKISHWEPI have been worn to perform certain ritual dances at court, principally for a dance known as ITUL, but also for other dances in honor of the king. Commoners may wear simple raffia skirts (called NTSHAK,) but not embroidered pieces. The designs may, at first sight, appear abstract but, in fact, most motifs had, in the past, meanings and specific names. Their meanings have, however, for the most part been lost, even by members of the royal entourage, and today the noble women merely copy patterns from older NTSHAKISHWEPI. Not every panel of each NTSHAKISHWEPI is the work of one woman, nor have the individual panels been decorated at the same time. Panels have been added by mothers, grandmothers, friends, and renowned embroiderers. This panel, however, would be worn by a man during the Itul festival.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
The potter of jar has neatly framed its squat, rounded body with a wide foot and mouth, each simply decorated with painted horizontal lines. The shape of this jar is nicely enhanced by its painted designs. An expansive peony branch fills the width of the globular body while a stylized “cloud collar” of ruyi (scepter head) motifs marks the transition to the neck. The mouth and foot are of the same height and width and each simply decorated with horizontal lines.
Maribeth Graybill, The Enduring Art of the Korean Potter, December 12, 2004-November 6, 2005
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Earthenware ceramic figure with tri-color glaze (in amber, cream and green) in the form of a creature with a human face
Subject Matter
Relics from one of the golden eras of Chinese art and culture, these fierce beast figures were always placed in pairs in tombs that often contained numerous ceramic figures of humans, animals, and supernatural creatures. Because of their position near the tomb entrance and their ferocious demeanor, such figures are thought to have been sentinels protecting the deceased from evil spirits.
Developed during the Six Dynasties period (222 - 589), spirit beast pairs always included one figure with a human face and one with a bestial face. Such tomb guardians with canine or feline bodies, seated on their haunches with straight forelegs, also were produced in the Tang dynasty, when ceramic examples commonly were fired with colorful lead-silicate glazes known as sancai or "three-color" glaze.
Label Copy
Sancai, or tri-color wares, were one of the most brilliant innovations of Tang dynasty (618–907) potters. Working with the same clay used to produce white wares, potters added iron and copper oxide colorants to create the typical three-color palette of cream, amber, and olive green. Lead flux made it possible for these colored glazes to fuse to the earthenware body at relatively low kiln temperatures. It also allowed glazes to run, which made them very difficult to control.
Sancai flourished under the patronage of the Tang elite as a ware for tomb figurines and funerary wares, such as this tomb guardian (one of a pair with UMMA 2004/2.132.1). (See UMMA 1969/2.160 for an example of a Sancai “peacock feather” funerary jar.) The market for such wares collapsed during a political crisis in the mid-eighth century.
Sancai, or tri-color glazed ware, was popular among the Tang elite for funerary goods, including fearsome composite creatures such as these which stood guard at the tombs of princes and aristocrats. Iron and copper oxide colorants were added to the glaze solutions to create the three colors of cream white, amber yellow, and olive green that are typical of the sancai palette. Lead flux made it possible for these colored glazes to fuse to the earthenware body at relatively low kiln temperatures. It also caused the glazes to run together, forming random patterns. Potters learned to exploit the expressive possibilities of the running glazes to accentuate the raw power and explosive energy emanating from the guardians.
Chinese believed that after death, the soul was freed from the body and could roam around the universe without hindrance. Family members did not like the idea of powerful ancestors, particularly those with unsettled grievances, wandering around unrestrained, so guardians were posted at the doorways of tombs to keep spirits from getting out as well as from coming in. Wandering spirits would have to think twice about passing through portals watched over by these fantastic hoofed creatures with menacing bestial or human faces and flaming manes or serrated wings. These composite creatures of clay, known as qitou (“earth spirit”) in Chinese, must have touched the eighth- century imagination the way sci-fi cyborgs of titanium and modern technology have captured ours in the twenty-first millennium.
(Label for UMMA Chinese Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
17.8 cm x 17 cm x 17 cm (7 in. x 6 11/16 in. x 6 11/16 in.)
Physical Description
This is an unglazed stoneware bizen jar fired in a wood-burning kiln.
It has a hard, smooth surface with decorative incisions near the top of the jar. The lower portion has effect of color gradation of reds and browns. The lid seems to dip into the jar, and has a know handle. The entire piece is not perfectly formed, but has an organic aesthetic.
Subject Matter
The Bizen kilns have been in operation since the sixth century, but by early modern times, they were in steep decline. Kaneshige Tôyô single-handedly led a revival of Momoyama wares. His work can be remarkably faithful to Momoyama prototypes, as in this water jar, or subtly modern. A water jar like this would have been used for tea ceremony.
For his accomplishments in restoring Bizen ware to its long-lost fame, Kaneshige was named a "Living National Treasure" by the Japanese government.
Label Copy
Like Shigaraki ware, Bizen is an unglazed stoneware fired in a wood-burning kiln—but differences in the local clay yield entirely different results. Bizen clay contains a high percentage of iron; it yields a hard, smooth surface that holds sharply incised decor. As the light pine ash drifts through the kiln, it falls on the clay, creating a "sesame seed" effect. Seaweed or salt-soaked straw rope is often wrapped around the pot to leave patterned traces.
The Bizen kilns have been in operation since the sixth century, but by early modern times, they were in steep decline. Kaneshige Tôyô single-handedly led a revival of Momoyama wares. His work can be remarkably faithful to Momoyama prototypes, as in this water jar, or subtly modern, as in the flower vase with its angular contours. For his accomplishments in restoring Bizen ware to its long-lost fame, Kaneshige was named a "Living National Treasure" by the Japanese government.
Exhibited in "Japanese Costumes & Ceramics, Past & Present," October 2001-February 2002. Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
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Bizen and Shigaraki wares represent a tradition, long prized in Japan, of unglazed stoneware fired in a wood-burning kiln. Bizen clay contains a high percentage of iron, which produces a hard, smooth surface that holds sharply incised décor; the sesame seed effect seen here is created by the pine ash that falls on the clay as it drifts through the kiln. The Bizen kilns have been in operation since the sixth century, and in the Momoyama period (1583–1615), the rustic, earthy clay tones of the wares produced in them were highly valued by tea practitioners. By the early nineteenth century, however, the quality of Bizen wares was in steep decline. Kaneshige single-handedly revived this sixteenth-century ceramic tradition, while bringing to bear on it a twentieth-century aesthetic. His work is characterized by its bold clay construction and free, playful application of fire patterns.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
