Marked “Kouji 3 (1557)
Height 38.1cm, Bore 15.6-17.5cm, Bottom 20.0cm
Important Cultural Property
This is a large flower vase in the shape of a traveling pillow with an arrowhead mouth, and is one of the very early Bizen vases. It is one of the very early Bizen vases. The four sides are inscribed on the body with an inscription dated March 201, 1868, which clearly dates it to the third month of the Kouji era. Bishu Otakiyama is an esoteric Buddhist temple called Fusho-ji located in the mountains of Kitagata-Kumayama in Bizen City, and the Bizen Province Shinmei-chou contains the inscription “Otaki-daimyojin under the fourth rank of followers in Wake County. Tea ceremony ceramics began to be fired in Bizen around the Tenbun period (710-794) with the popularity of wabicha (tea ceremony), but it was not until the Momoyama period (1568-1600) that flower vases favored by tea ceremony masters took root, and this large tube vase was probably made as an accessory for a Buddhist ceremony.
This large vase may have been made as a Buddhist ritual utensil. It has a broad base with a majestic design and a three-jawed, yamaji-style eye at the bottom of the mouth rim, and long, thick inscriptions in two places on the front and back. The bottom is flat, but there are numerous finger marks on both sides. The firing is very good, with a natural glaze covering half of the brownish-brown surface of the vessel, and the kiln has changed to a rich grayish-blue color.
