Nisai Small Jar

Excavated from Okinoshima Island, Munakata City, Fukuoka
8th century
Height 5.7cm, mouth diameter 3.6cm, body diameter 7.2cm, bottom diameter 3.6cm
Munakata Grand Shrine
　Okinoshima Island, an isolated island facing the Genkai Sea, is a strategic point for maritime traffic to the continent and has been a prominent ritual site since the Kofun period. Among the many ritual relics found here are two small Sansai jars, eight small Nisai jars, five Nisai lids, and a Tang Sansai water jar fragment. Most of the small jars of this type found in Japan are Sansai-glazed, with only one Nisai-glazed jar with a lid from the Maeyama Nakamichi site in Saku City, Nagano Prefecture. The Nisai small jar excavated from Okinoshima Island differs from Sansai small jars in that it has a long body and the bottom is not elevated, leaving it with an itokiri bottom. It is not clear whether this jar was made in the 8th century or later.