Green jar with cover

9th century

Sue ware, also known as Sanage ware, is characterized by a greenish ash glaze trailing in uneven drips over a voluminous gray body. It is extremely rare for a piece as early as this vessel to still have its lid intact. In the Nara (710–794) and Heian periods, such low-necked jars were often used as receptacles for bones.

Sue ware; stoneware with ash glaze

11 9/16 in. (29.3 cm)

Girth: 11 9/16 in.

The Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund, the Asian Support Fund, the Asian Art Council and a gift from Ruth Trubner in memory of her mother, Helen Seymon

85.28

Provenance: Klaus F. Naumann, Tokyo; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, purchased with funds from the Margaret E. Fuller Purchase Fund, the Asian Support Fund, the Asian Art Council and an Anonymous Donation in Memory of Helen Seymon, February 11, 1985

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures Of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Luminous: The Art of Asia, Oct. 13, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012.

Published References"Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 1985," in the Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 39 (1986), p. 75-88, illus no. 45.

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum", 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 13

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