Excavated from Yanagimoto-cho, Tenri City, Nara Prefecture
8th century
Height 8.9-9.6cm, Diameter 18.0cm, Bottom diameter 13.1cm
Important Cultural Property
Tokyo National Museum
The development of the flattened disk-shaped cup part and the chamfered foot of earthenware high cups was a phenomenon in the Kinai region from the end of the 7th to the 8th century. This example has a shallow disk with a flat rim and short legs with eight chamfered sides, the upper surface of which is decorated with a radial pattern of chamfers and the inner surface with a series of circles. The diameter of this type of cup eventually became smaller and the legs became longer and larger, and the dark design was no longer visible. The process of change would place this cup at the beginning of the 8th century. This is the best example among the earthenware cups of the period, and is a typical example of the progress of earthenware production techniques during the Nara period, despite the spread of Sue ware.
