Ewer with bridge handle

early 17th century

Dr. Fuller obtained two remarkable examples of Oribe ware in the 1950s: this ewer and the square dish in an adjacent case. Known for its distinctive style—copper green glazes, abstract designs, and asymmetry or sometimes even distorted forms—Oribe ware takes its name from the warlord-tea master Furuta Oribe (1544–1615), although no direct historical connection has yet been found. The patterns of tortoise-shell and stripes on this ewer’s body are also found on textiles as well as on other Oribe ware ceramics.

Stoneware with underglaze decoration

8 1/4 x 5 5/16 in.

Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection "Gift to a City: Masterworks From the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection in the Seattle Art Museum," Portland, OR: Portland Art Museum, 1965, no. 124.

58.12

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySan Francisco, California, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Treasures of Japan, 1960.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum, 1960.

Oakland, California, Oakland Art Museum, Japanese Ceramics From Ancient to Modern Times, 1961.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle World's Fair, Fine Arts Pavilion, Art of Ancient East, 1962.

Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Gift to a City: Masterworks from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection in the Seattle Art Museum, Nov. 3 - 28, 1965. Cat. no. 124.

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

New York, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan, Oct. 21, 2003 - Jan. 11, 2004.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Tea House Gallery Installation, Nov. 26, 2004 - Jan. 30, 2006.

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.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesFuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 123

"Gift to a City" exhibition catalogue. Portland, OR: Portland Art Museum, 1965, cat. no. 124

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors, "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum", 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 17.

Foong, Ping, Xiaojin Wu, and Darielle Mason. "An Asian Art Museum Transformed." Orientations vol. 51, no. 3 (May/June 2020): p. 61, reproduced fig. 22 (installation view).

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