Storage Jar

Ceramics fired at temperatures around 1200 degrees c, glazed only by the accidental fall of ashes within the kiln, were in everyday use by the beginning of the Kamakura Period (1185). Strong, waterproof vats, water jars, seed storage jars and grating bowls served rural domestic and agricultural purposes.

This type of Tamba pottery was built up of coils, smoothed and given final shape on a wheel.

Form swells gradually with corrugations indicating inadequately smoothed coils, from a flat round unglazed base without foot ring, to rounded shoulder; short neck with flaring rounded lip, wide mouth; red-brown ware. Thick green ash glaze covers jar evenly nearly to base; areas of darker splotches; spots of red-brown matte paint which may be remnants of characters; glossy crackled glaze, pitted and gritty, seriously degraded at junctions of underlying coils in shoulder area as well as in main body area; large patches of light ochre yellow dripping from shoulder area to just short of base.