Three Sake Bottles for a Tea Gathering: Imari, Shonzui and Zhangzhou
For its 2009 exhibition 「染付－藍が彩るアジアの器」 (14 July to 6 September 2009), Tokyo National Museum arranged a sake service, 「お酒のおもてなし」. The museum also laid a tea setting and a breakfast table for the same show. The sake service pairs three antique sake bottles: a Japanese Imari bottle and two 17th-century Chinese bottles that were valued in Japan.
The museum's group photograph shows ten objects, and three of them are identified. This post looks at those three bottles.
Japanese Imari Square Sake Bottle with Flowering Plants
The museum's English title is Square Sake Bottle with Flowering Plants. It is Imari ware, made in Japan in the 17th century, during the Edo period.
Imari (伊万里) is porcelain made in Hizen during the Edo period, named after the port of Imari from which it was shipped. The museum record notes that Imari is where Japan's first porcelain was made, in the early 1600s.
The bottle was built from rectangular slabs and painted in cobalt after a first firing. Its decoration shows peonies and narcissus inside frames bordered in dark blue. The shoulder is flat, with a small mouth at one corner, a type of bottle called 角徳利 (kaku-tokuri).
According to the record, ceramic bottles like this were used to serve sake at tea gatherings. It stands 19.0 cm high, with a body of 9.0 cm and a base of 8.3 cm, and was donated by Dr Yokogawa Tamisuke (横河民輔).
Chinese Shonzui Gourd-Shaped Sake Bottle with Twisting Stripes
The museum's English title is Gourd-Shaped Sake Bottle with Twisting Stripes. It was made in China at Jingdezhen in the 17th century, during the Ming dynasty.
Shonzui (祥瑞) is a group of blue-and-white wares made at private kilns in Jingdezhen at the end of the Ming dynasty, to order for Japanese tea masters. The style was later echoed in Japan, for example in a Meiji-era Japanese tea bowl in the Shonzui style.
The bottle is porcelain with incised decoration and underglaze blue. Its plain ground is incised with a shippō-tsunagi (七宝繋ぎ) pattern: equal circles that overlap by a quarter and repeat in every direction. Various Shonzui-type (祥瑞手) designs follow the curves of the gourd. It carries the inscription 「上上大吉」, an auspicious phrase meaning, roughly, "the very best of good fortune".
Bottles of the same size and type survive, which the museum record takes as a sign that they were favoured for entertaining guests. This one stands 19.6 cm high, with a mouth of 2.4 cm and a base of 5.3 cm, and was donated by Hirota Matsushige.
Chinese Zhangzhou Sake Bottle with Circles
The museum's English title is Sake Bottle with Circles. It was made in China at the Zhangzhou kilns of southern Fujian in the 17th century, during the Ming dynasty.
Gosu akae is the Japanese name for this kind of ware. It is usually written 呉須赤絵, and the museum's title writes it 呉州赤絵. Japanese dictionaries describe it as porcelain from southern China, made from the late Ming into the early Qing dynasty for export, with free, lively overglaze painting in which red is the main colour.
The bottle is porcelain with overglaze enamel. Its body is coarse and grey, covered with a white glaze, and its designs are painted in overglaze enamels.
It was made as export ware. The museum record contrasts it with Jingdezhen products: it has the relaxed charm of a folk kiln. In Japan it was valued as tea ware, and tea masters liked its imperfect glaze and loose brushwork. It was used to serve sake at tea gatherings.
The bottle stands 21.2 cm high, with a mouth of 2.3 cm and a base of 7.6 cm. It was also donated by Hirota Matsushige.
Three Antique Sake Bottles for a Tea Gathering
The three bottles come from two countries and different kinds of kiln. The Imari bottle comes from the kilns where, the museum notes, Japan's first porcelain was made in the early 1600s. The Shonzui bottle was made at Jingdezhen in a style ordered for Japanese tea masters. The Zhangzhou bottle is rougher export ware that tea masters valued for its loose brushwork.
What links them is their use. Each was a bottle for serving sake to guests, and the museum's 2009 arrangement puts them back in that role.
These three bottles stay in the museum's collection, but if they've put you in the mood to pour for guests yourself, our Etsy shop has pieces we can deliver to your own table.
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