Height 41.6 cm, mouth diameter 11.9 cm, body diameter 30.6 cm, bottom diameter 11.2 cm
This is the most detailed example of Insei’s overglaze enamels among the dozen or so tea pots he left behind. It is also unusual in that it has an oval shape, which is not seen in any other examples. The mouth is rounded and twisted, with ears on all four sides of the shoulder, and a black glaze is applied around the mouth and shoulder in the style of Genji clouds. On one side of the body, a large waterfall is painted in silver and carp are depicted in the waterfall basin in the style of the ascending dragon gate. The reverse side shows several Chinese figures admiring a painting in a Chinese-style tower, with Chinese children playing in the garden. The left side features a pine tree, and the edge of the central pavilion is decorated with a peony tree. The style of the figures seems to be that of the Ming Dynasty in China, and the brushwork is clearly of the Kano school, for which a Kano school painter was probably commissioned to make preliminary sketches. The bottom of the flat bottom of the bowl has a large seal of Ren Qing stamped on the left side, but the lower half of the character for “Qing” has almost completely disappeared.
