A plump sparrow is perching on a bamboo branch, which is bending from the main branch on the left side of the painting. The bamboo has young and mature leaves. The background is left as blank. The mounting is made of creamy silk brocade with blue green silk brocade strips. Brown brocade pieces are pasted on the top and the bottom of the mounting. There is a seal in red ink on the left corner. Wrinkles on the top and right lower side of the bid; some smaller worm holes and one large hole underneath the bird, but all repaired.
Subject Matter
The combination of a bird and bamboo here is a favored subject matter in Japanese ink painting called "bird and flower" painting ("kachôga"). Painters of Kanô school (official painting school of the samurai class in Momoyama and Edo periods) executed many paintings in this category.
Label Copy
Imagine being in a small teahouse in early spring, a faint fragrance of incense in the air. Outside, all is still covered with snow. The host serves steaming green tea in a handcrafted black raku bowl, its thick walls ideally suited to retaining the heat of the tea. In an alcove, you spy a painting of a plump sparrow, sitting in sunny spot. All these elements have been carefully orchestrated by your host to create a sense of the coming spring.
This painting of a sparrow was painted by the Kanô-school painter Gyokuraku, at the time when the great tea master Sen no Rikyû (1522–1591) was perfecting the tea practice based on the aesthetic of wabi (rusticity or genteel frugality). According to Rikyû, the essence of wabi is contrast—only people who know the lavish colors of flowers and autumn leaves (analogous to gold and brocade) could appreciate the rustic beauty of a deserted fisherman’s house. The painting by Gyokuraku thus represents the wabi ideal: the quick, abbreviated ink drawing of the mundane bird is mounted on the opulent golden silk brocade.
(Label for UMMA Japanese 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.
A plump sparrow is perching on a bamboo branch, which is bending from the main branch on the left side of the painting. The bamboo has young and mature leaves. The background is left as blank. The mounting is made of creamy silk brocade with blue green silk brocade strips. Brown brocade pieces are pasted on the top and the bottom of the mounting. There is a seal in red ink on the left corner. Wrinkles on the top and right lower side of the bid; some smaller worm holes and one large hole underneath the bird, but all repaired.
Subject Matter
The combination of a bird and bamboo here is a favored subject matter in Japanese ink painting called "bird and flower" painting ("kachôga"). Painters of Kanô school (official painting school of the samurai class in Momoyama and Edo periods) executed many paintings in this category.
Label Copy
Imagine being in a small teahouse in early spring, a faint fragrance of incense in the air. Outside, all is still covered with snow. The host serves steaming green tea in a handcrafted black raku bowl, its thick walls ideally suited to retaining the heat of the tea. In an alcove, you spy a painting of a plump sparrow, sitting in sunny spot. All these elements have been carefully orchestrated by your host to create a sense of the coming spring.
This painting of a sparrow was painted by the Kanô-school painter Gyokuraku, at the time when the great tea master Sen no Rikyû (1522–1591) was perfecting the tea practice based on the aesthetic of wabi (rusticity or genteel frugality). According to Rikyû, the essence of wabi is contrast—only people who know the lavish colors of flowers and autumn leaves (analogous to gold and brocade) could appreciate the rustic beauty of a deserted fisherman’s house. The painting by Gyokuraku thus represents the wabi ideal: the quick, abbreviated ink drawing of the mundane bird is mounted on the opulent golden silk brocade.
(Label for UMMA Japanese 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.
A square shaped, wood tray with curved corners tray. The interior is red lacquered, and the exterior is coated with black lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlays in geometric shapes.
Subject Matter
This type of tray was used to carry offerings to a Buddhist monastery or to place paraphernalia associated with betel chewing, an important social custom in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. The use of mother-of-pearl inlayed lacquer ware was widespread among royalty and monks in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
This type of tray was used to hold paraphernalia associated with betel chewing, an important social custom in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. The tray could hold small boxes, such as the three elaborate nielloware containers nearby, in an elegant household of Thai royalty. The use of mother-of-pearl–inlayed lacquerware was widespread among royalty and monks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
(Label for UMMA South and Southest Asia 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.
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.
Flat woven bamboo basket with geometric pattern in red and black
Subject Matter
Flat woven bamboo basket with geometric pattern in red and black and the design of a swastika ("wan") in the middle, which is a homophone for "ten-thousand" and is used in various combinations to suggest "endless;" therefore, it is believed that this basket may have been used at a wedding or birthday celebration.
Label Copy
This 20th Century basket (check date) has a swastika pattern achieved by a twilled weaving technique, dating back to the third century B.C. The use of this pattern suggests it might have been used at a wedding or a birthday celebration as the swastika (wan) is a homophone for “ten-thousand” and is used in various combinations to suggest “endless” --a positive sentiment for such happy occasions. Punning words are common in Chinese language because many words share sounds. Such word play flourishes in decorative arts as a means of carrying out the traditional belief that if families surround themselves with symbols of good fortune, their wishes will come true.
(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.
Hamada Shôji is perhaps the best known Japanese potter on the international scene. He travelled widely in Europe and North American, including a sustained visit to Ann Arbor in 1967 for the 150th anniversary of UM. A life-long colleague of the British potter Bernard Leach (1887–1979), Hamada was a key player in the development of the Japan Folk Art Movement. At his kiln in Mashiko, a small pottery village to the northeast of Tokyo, he developed a bold, earth style of ceramics that drew on both Korean and Okinawan inspiration. He refused to sign his pieces, with the famous remark, "If you cannot see whom it is by, it is either because the pot is bad or because you are blind." For better or worse, Hamada's style has now been imitated for over half a century by hundreds of other potters in Mashiko, as well as world-wide.
Ovoid stoneware vase with brown iron glaze and bamboo design stretching diagonally across the height of the vase. A short, tapered neck flares iinto a wide rimmed opening.
Subject Matter
Ovoid vase.
Label Copy
In the 1960s, Hamada traveled extensively abroad both for his exhibitions and for pleasure. In 1967, he was invited to receive an honorary degree at the University of Michigan and during his stay gave several demonstrations at the School of Art with professor of ceramics John Stephenson. A film of one of the demonstrations shows Hamada vigorously throwing pots at the age of 73. Hamada also visited and demonstrated at the Ann Arbor Potters Guild, where he left these witty drawings and calligraphy works.
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.
A small container made by inverting a wheel-thrown jar with a rounded bottom, cutting out a circle in the new 'shoulder' of the jar, and attaching a flat bottom. The handle, which is simply attached at both ends, takes the form of an areca fruit. The vessel as a whole has a pale straw-colored glaze, with a rich green iron glaze dripped over the handle and the upper part of the pot.
Subject Matter
A small pot for holding powdered lime (calcium oxide), an ingredient mixed with betel nuts and spices to make a popular stimulant used extensively in Vietnam and other parts of South and Southeast Asia.
Label Copy
March 28, 2009
This curiously shaped ceramic pot was used for betel chewing, a custom common in Vietnam, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries. A pot, filled with powdered lime, was passed around to guests, who each inserted a moistened finger in the hole to extract the amount of lime required. This was then smeared on a betel leaf, together with slices of areca nut and often extra flavorings such as clove and cardamom, folded into a wad, and chewed. The pot is modeled in the shape of an areca nut, the seed of the areca palm tree that grows in most tropical countries. Some white powdered lime still remains inside this pot.
(Label for UMMA South and Southest Asia 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.
One of a small group of artists to work in the studio of Kaigetsudô Andô. He did paintings and prints; twelve of his print designs (all in the large "kakemono e" format) are known today.
This is a large monochrome print of a courtesan wearing kimono with iris design. The courtesan is standing with her right hand in the sleeve that she raises to her chin and left hand gathering up her kimono; Her cloak with bamboo leaf and gentian flower design is slipping off her shoulder and revealing her dark kimono with iris roundels. She has long hair; her hair is tied and draped on the back. She is looking toward the right side. There is the artist’s signature and seal, and publisher’s seal on the right.
Subject Matter
This extravagantly large print is one of a very rare series issued in Edo in the 1710s by the Kaigetsudô School of artists. Perhaps designed as inexpensive substitutes for paintings, Kaigetsudô prints invariably depict courtesans swathed in magnificent bold-patterned robes, against a plain ground. The typical Kaigetsudô courtesan is a full-bodied woman who is both seductive and yet somehow beyond our reach; for all that she is on display, she remains in her own closed-off world of reveries.
(M. Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art, March, 2002)
Label Copy
This large print is one from a very rare series issued in Edo in the 1710s by the Kaigetsudô school of artists. Perhaps designed as inexpensive substitutes for paintings, Kaigetsudô prints invariably depict courtesans swathed in magnificent bold-patterned robes, against a plain ground.
Here the courtesan has allowed her cloak to slip off her shoulder, displaying her iris-patterned kimono to dramatic effect. She coyly hides her right hand in the sleeve she raises to her chin, while she gathers up her robes with her left hand. The typical Kaigetsudô courtesan is a full-bodied woman who is both seductive and yet somehow beyond our reach—on display, yet in her own closed-off world.
(Label for UMMA Japanese 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.
This incense burner is composed of two equal halves. It opens to be used for incense storage, and takes the shape of a ginko leaf. The glaze gives the piece a red color.
Subject Matter
This is an incense container in the shape of a ginko leaf. The artist, Koyama Kyoko, struggled as a female potter in a trade dominated by male artists. She received recognition when she discovered a way to revive the forgotten techinique of natural ash glazes, which are commonly used in her work.
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 painting inculdes the seal of the artist Ren Xun. A crane stands in the foreground, with it's head and beak turned toward the viewer, revealing a patch of orangish red on its face. A pine tree arches across the background above.
Subject Matter
Ren Xun, best known for painting birds and animals, was the younger brother of Ren Xiong’s (1823–1857). This elegant painting of a crane, a symbol of immortality, and pine and bamboo, symbols of longevity, is appropriate for birthday or New Year’s gifts. To suggest the cold season, Ren Xun chose orange pigment to depict the pine needles.
Label Copy
Seal of the artist
Ren Xun, best known for painting birds and animals, was the younger brother of Ren Xiong’s (1823–1857) (see UMMA 1985/2.32). This elegant painting of a crane, a symbol of immortality, and pine and bamboo, symbols of longevity, is appropriate for birthday or New Year’s gifts. To suggest the cold season, Ren Xun chose orange pigment to depict the pine needles.
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.
Various sketches of fruits and flowers each with accompanying calligraphy.
Image 1: Large white flower in the upper left balanced by a large gray rock in the lower right. A smaller pink flower completes the visual triangle.
Image 2: A branch bearing two clusters of small orange fruits begins in the upper left and ends lower, center.
Image 3: A branch of white and pink flowers starts center right and moves off the page at upper center.
Image 4: A branch bearing three large green fruits starts and the upper left corner and ends just right of center. Two fruits centrally located and the third is in the upper left.
Image 5: Rock-mass in the upper right with green grass-like plants and light green orchids.
Image 6: Fruit-bearing vine moves across the top of the page and crosses over the lower right corner.
Image 7: Two large orange blooms are located slightly left of center and near the top. Opposite those the lower right half is dominated by a large rock formation.
Image 8: Two large orange-ish red fruits are located slightly below the center of the paper.
Image 9: Green leaves move from the upper right corner towards the lower left. In the lower left is a rock formation.
Image 10: Two large orange fruits are slighly off center and a small branch is in the upper right corner.
Image 11: A plant with red leaves moves from the upper right to the lower left. It is visually divided by a rock formation.
Image 12: One cluster of red fruits is slight below the center of the page, while another cluster is located more towards the upper right corner.
Image 13: Blooms of flowers curve up the page from the lower left to the center. There are three white blooms near the bottom left and two yellow ones near the top of the page.
Image 14: Three large blooming flowers are centrally located on the page. Two are slightly toward the left while the third is slightly toward the right.
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.
A medium size, well potted jar with round shoulder and shorter neck. Inside is not totally glazed. On the body, pine, bamboo, and plum trees are finely painted with blue underglaze. Then a translucent glaze is applied, which turns into milky, white color. It has three floral decorations on the shoulder; the decoration is originated in functional elements of “ears” to which ropes were tied for transportation. The neck has a band of double lines and spray design of peony flowers and leaves. The rim of the neck is unglazed. The foot is unglazed; eye is glazed. Some imperfections of glaze are seen toward the bottom. Glaze is scraped off on one part. Many speckles on the surface.
Subject Matter
The three plants depicted here, pine, bamboo, and plum, are called “three friends in winter,” and have been depicted in many forms of Japanese decorative arts throughout its history. They symbolize long life and cultured gentlemen.
Label Copy
Ceramic traditions and technologies have moved back and forth across Asia since the prehistoric period, a phenomenon that continues to this day. This piece dates from the very beginning of porcelain production in Japan, made possible by the forced immigration of a great number of Korean potters following the Japanese invasion under the military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598). The more technically advanced Korean potters introduced the noborigama (climbing kilns), multichambered wood-fired kilns that can retain a high, accurate, and evenly distributed temperature. The discovery of a large deposit of prized kaolin, or porcelain clay, in the province of Hizen further contributed to the rise of porcelain making in Japan.
The combination of pine, bamboo, and plum blossom—known as the “three friends”—is a popular motif across the decorative arts of East Asia.
(Label for UMMA Japanese 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.
This is made of a thick brocade of red, gold and silver. Medallion patterns and wavy stripes are woven through the entirety of the fabric, rather than halfway, as is common in less intricate obi. Medallion motifs of tortoise shells, flowers, and bamboo leaves are spaced among the golden waves across the fabric.
Subject Matter
The red color of this obi is a bold and auspicious one, and marks the obi as one probably worn only for weddings or other formal celebrations. The motifs within the medallions that decorate the obi are traditonal symbols of longevity.
Label Copy
Obi
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
1960s–70s
Green silk with gold embroidered design
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.342
Obi
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
1970s
Ivory sateen weave silk with large woven designs in gold-leafed paper
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.328
Obi
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
1950s–60s
Red silk with woven and embroidered design and gold-wrapped thread
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.344
Obi
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
mid-20th century
Black silk interwoven with silk floss and gold-covered paper threads
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.345
Obi
Japan, Showa period (1926–1989)
1940s–60s
Brocade with patterns in silk floss and gold-leafed paper
Gift of Howard and Patricia Yamaguchi, 2005/1.329
These five gorgeous obi, all made of brocade, are intended to be worn with and complement formal kimono, such
as the black tomesode and gray hômongi on the right. The
red obi with a pattern of medallions against gold wavy lines was worn with long-sleeved kimono (called furisode, meaning “swinging sleeves”). Such kimono are worn only by unmarried women until their twenties; this one was worn by Iwata Shizuka’s daughter, Shizuko. The use of red as a dominant color, whether on kimono or obi, is also limited to young, unmarried women or brides at their wedding.
The Nishijin area of the city of Kyoto has dominated
the production of the high-quality woven textiles used for obi since the fifteenth century. The weaving industry flourished there under the protection and encouragement of the flamboyant military rulers of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568–1615), Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598). The production of Nishijin textiles is very complex and specialized in five main areas—designing and creating patterns, producing silk threads, producing tools (including weaving machines), weaving, and final sewing—each accomplished in a different workshop.
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.
21 cm x 20 cm x 10.5 cm (8 1/4 in. x 7 7/8 in. x 4 1/8 in.)
Physical Description
Flask-shaped bottle with short, narrow neck. Bamboo leaves design in brown color is applied on one shoulder toward the bottom. The porous surface of white glaze shows the orange color of the clay. The spout is narrow and has an elevated rim. The foot is short and glazed.
Subject Matter
The flask bottle is perhaps intended to be displayed by itself, but not for practical use. The bamboo leaves are painted with quick brushstroke.
Label Copy
5. Katô Takuo
Japan, 1917–2005
Shino ware flask-shaped bottle
Showa period (1926–1989)
circa 1958
Stoneware with white feldspathic glaze and iron underglaze painting
Museum purchase, 1963/2.69
(Turning Point exhibition, Spring 2010)
Shino ware was first developed in the sixteenth century, in direct response to the exploding market for tea ceremony vessels. Potters in the mountains of Mino discovered a new vein of clay and developed new glaze formulas, especially favoring the porous, milky white feldspathic glaze seen here. When thinly applied, the iron in the glaze stains it red, giving it a much-admired "scorched" effect.
Katô Takuo was one of the most prominent studio potters of the twentieth century, as well as an astute student of ceramic history. Katô demonstrates here his control of Momoyama Shino glazing and firing techniques. The bottle shape, on the other hand, is not typical of Shino ware; by putting the two together, Katô proclaims his own creativity and independence from models.
Exhibited in "Japanese Costumes & Ceramics, Past & Present," October 2001-February 2002. Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
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.
Three pieces are combined here to make a fashion accessory for a Japanese man of the mid- to late 19th century. The pipe holder (in Japanese, kiseruzutsu), is in the form of Ashinaga, or “Long Legs” a mythological creature associated with water and fishing. No signature has been deciphered on the carved Ashinaga figure, but stylistically it may be attributed to the studio of Katsushika Hokusai ((1760–1849). Hokusai published at least one volume designs for tobacco paraphernalia, entitled Imayo kushi kiseru hinagata (Patterns for modern combs and pipes; issued in 1823). The accompanying tobacco container (tonkotsu) takes the shape of a crab with dragon claws, and it does bear a signature that appears to read "Hokusai" on the reverse. However, there are no known examples of carvings by any artist named Hokusai, so the attribution is still under research. Finally, the toggle on the cord connecting the two is called an ojime. It is in the shape of a bell or tablet, decorated with a snail, and signed "Ikkoku."
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art, September 2004
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.
A native of Shanghai, Zhang Gunian (Chang Ku-nien) first studied painting at the age of nine under the tutelage of his uncle. His work clearly embraces the free brushwork that flourished in Shanghai painting circles in the early part of the twentieth century. After his move to Taiwan, he frequently did scenes that reflected the accomplishments of the Nationalist Government in creating a modern China. He organized a group of like-minded colleagues as the "Seven Friends of Painting and Calligraphy," and together they often did collaborative works. His paintings and calligraphy were much admired in Taiwan and Japan in the second half of the twentieth century, although less known in the West. A major donation to UMMA of nearly forty paintings by Zhang Gunian, given by his son and daughter, will allow for serious study of this artist's work in North America.
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.
