Dimensions
Height: 3.4 cm
Mouth diameter
Outer 5.2 cm, inner 5.4 cm
inner 4.2cm
Bottom diameter 4.6-4.8cm
Paintings of water buffalo are of a type limited to China. The shape of this incense container indicates that it was once used as a seal inkpad and a stationery tool, and thus is an ancient piece.
It is also ranked in the upper front row of the Kogai ranking list, and is considered to be a very important piece.
The four-way irikaku shape seems to have been a common shape in China, and the “Hikisettai-gyu” incense container is of the same type. The design of a water buffalo running on a wave with a stringed moon above it is not clear what it is supposed to mean.
It is likely to be a Chinese taste for the genre.
Moreover, the waves are painted with indigo and the white lines are drawn off, which is a very Chinese conception.
There were only a few of them, and the author recalls seeing only three or four of them, which is naturally different from the incense containers ordered by tea masters.
Reference piece, underglaze blue and white, discarded cow
