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Course: Art of Asia > Unit 4
Lesson 9: Nanbokuchō (1333–1392) and Muromachi period (1392–1573)- Nanbokuchō and Muromachi periods, an introduction
- Ryoanji
- Ryōanji (Peaceful Dragon Temple)
- Bamboo in the Four Seasons: painting and poetry in Japan
- Short sword (wakizashi) and long sword (katana)
- Helmet with half-face mask
- The Way of Tea
- Teahouse at the Asian Art Museum
- Tea bowl with standing crane design (gohon tachizuru)
- Fresh water jar
- Muromachi to Momoyama period Negoro ware ewer
- Incense container with design of plovers
- Kichizan Minchō, Monju Bosatsu
- Sessō Tōyō, Haboku-style landscape
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Muromachi to Momoyama period Negoro ware ewer
Negoro ware ewer, Negoro workshop, Muromachi period (1392-1573) to Momoyama period (1573-1615) second half of 16th century, lacquered wood, Wakayama prefecture, Japan (Portland Art Museum). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- At, the sound gets all garbled and then comes back to working normally around 3:48. Just figured I would mention this. Thanks! 4:18(15 votes)
- it starts backup again sometime aroundand stops at 4:205:00(3 votes)
- Mercury is a silver liquid at room temperature so how do you make powdered mercury?(3 votes)
- Cinnabar is mercury sulfide (HgS), to synthezise it in a lab you would take some kind of mercury salt. Pure mercury is much rather a product of reacting cinnabar with oxygen.(2 votes)
- Can there be more videos about japan please ?(3 votes)
- Why do they use stuff that is toxic?(1 vote)
- Wrong time period - this shouldn't be under ancient cultures.(1 vote)
- Who is the second voice in the video (at)? I don't think it is Beth, but there is no one else credited in the description! 0:32(1 vote)
- Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D. is the curator for Asian art at the Portland Art Museum(1 vote)
- Umm...How is this buddhist art?(0 votes)
- This is video is about 14th to 16th century Japanese art, so it does not belong on this series as it is neither buddhist art nor ancient art.(1 vote)
- How come the wood look so shiny?(1 vote)
- It could have been painted and polished, or just polished. In the video they say that they used lacquer.(1 vote)
- 1. There seems to be an audio problem from aboutinto the presentation continuing almost t0 about 3:50. 5:02
2. The folks describing the piece fail to give it's dimensions: 15" x 9.5" x 5". The video lacks the necessary perspective to otherwise gauge the size of the item.
3. A much better photo of this can be found at http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=46912;type=101.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] I'm standing
here in the galleries, the Japanese galleries at
the Portland Art Museum. And we're looking at a recent acquisition. It is a ewer which is a
particular kind of pitcher that comes to us from
late 16th century Japan. - [Voiceover] The first
thing that comes to mind is its material because when
I first walked up to this I imagined in some way,
probably because of the sides that it was metal. And when I came close to it
I realized that it wasn't. It's wood, is that right? - [Voiceover] Yes it's wood. And what's interesting is that the body, and we often talk about pots
in this anthropomorphic way. The body has a very slight, I mean it's almost a cylinder. But it tapers a little bit at the foot. So the body is sort of
in the shape of a bucket. This isn't carved from
a single block of wood but it's rather a strip of wood that was steamed and wrapped. Then we see these things
that these ridges on it. Those are actually strips of bamboo that are sort of like
little reinforcing girders that help hold that steamed wood in that wrapped cylindrical shape. - [Voiceover] So it's really a process of construction that's made in a way that is not dissimilar to the way that we might treat metal. - [Voiceover] If you
think of a sheet of metal hammered and then bent, that's like that. And what is so interesting, if we think okay what are the normal ways that you handle wood? Well we think of carving wood. - [Voiceover] Yes exactly. - [Voiceover] That idea of making a vessel by wrapping a slab of wood into a cylinder and then putting a bottom on it, that is a technique in which
Japanese wood makers excel. - [Voiceover] There's a kind of delicacy and a kind of I think that I
get the sense of the thinness of the wall that seems to
me only possible in metal. And I think that's why I jumped there. But I think that really
speaks to the extraordinary sort of tradition out
of which this is coming. And I see it as incredibly impressive. Can we talk a little bit about
the way the wood is treated and the color which I find beautiful. It's got this almost
gorgeous almost patina. - [Voiceover] Yes it does have a patina. This ware is an example
of Japanese lacquer ware. So the wood turning, the wood
bending, the wood shaping happens, and then it goes
through a number of stages of being coated with lacquer. And lacquer is found really
in much of Southeast Asia and East Asia. But in Japan, Japanese
lacquer was so treasured by the Europeans when trade began that, analogous to the way
that we use the word China to associate ceramics with China, Europeans used to call works
that were lacquered Japaned. - [Voiceover] Oh is that right? - [Voiceover] It was so
associated with Japan. And lacquer is the sap of a lac tree. It's a naturally occurring sap. So think of maple syrup. And think of it as something
that trees ooze out at a particular season of the year. You have to go and tap it. And it's thick and
viscous like maple syrup. Interestingly, it's also toxic. - [Voiceover] Oh really? - [Voiceover] It has
the same chemicals in it that poison ivy does. So lacquer workers have
to spend a lifetime building up resistance to this. So you have this lacquer and then you can, there's sort of
traditional colors to dye it and in Japan, those two
traditional colors were black, which you did essentially
by mixing lamp black, a kind of soot with it. And the other was what you see here. This fantastic cinnabar red by mixing in cinnabar
which is powdered mercury. - [Voiceover] So this
was toxic on two levels. - [Voiceover] This is
toxic on two levels, yes. - [Voiceover] I suppose one
would save drinking water out of this, but it does
sort of bring that to mind. - [Voiceover] Well, but
by the time it dries, all that toxicity is gone. So what happens is lacquer
has to be painted on in many many coats. But what lacquer does, and lacquer is used in East Asia from the
fourth century BC onward, lacquer can make a wooden object like a high fired porcelain. It can make it perfectly
impervious to leaks. It can hold hot water. It can hold cold water. So it can handle a
variety of temperatures. It's perfect for containers like this. - [Voiceover] It's also gorgeous. The surface has almost
a kind of translucence that's this kind of
milky kind of beautiful. Is that original or is
that a result of its age? - [Voiceover] Well both. Because it's many layers of lacquer. And the lacquer layers are very very thin and then they have to dry. And then it's polished. And another layer is put
on and it's polished. And the secret of this particular ware, this comes from a monastic
workshop in Japan. And it's called Negoro. That's the name of the monestary so we call this Negoro ware. First several layers are black. And then the last layers are red. And if you look at the handle you can see where it is
touched the most often. The lacquer has worn a little bit thin. And a little bit of the
black is coming through. And that is the secret of Negoro ware. It's seeing that suggestion of black underneath the red. - [Voiceover] It gives
incredible dimension. - [Voiceover] It's like
looking into this pool of red and then seeing the black underneath. But I think it really gives this depth. - [Voiceover] This is an
object that comes from the 16th century, and
yet it is so pristine. It is in such incredible condition. I mean it looks as if it was
made just a few years ago. And it speaks to I think the resilience as you were saying of the lacquer. But is it also that these were because they were in a monastic enviroment that these were kept sort
of out of everyday use? Why would this be in such good condition? Do we have any idea? - [Voiceover] Although
Negoro ware is very very highly treasured today, and this particular shape
and in this condition is extremely rare. We know of two similar pieces
in American collections but that's all that I know of right now. Of this particular shape. This shape belongs to a
particular moment in history. But it's not-- It would not have to its original uses or its original makers been a particularly a precious object. So we wouldn't think of it the way that Chinese would think
of something like jade. - [Voiceover] So this was not safeguarded as a particularly special-- - [Voiceover] So it wouldn't
have been hidden away. And in fact, that's great because look at the wonderful black
that we can see in the handle. So it's not something that
was brought out at Christmas. You know? It was something that
would have been used. But you're quite right that
because it was in a monestary and monasteries are likely
to have the resources to have a big huge store house with a foot thick or two foot thick clay walls, that it would not be subject to the kind of frequent
flyers that would happen to let's say an urban merchant's collection. That's one. And the other thing that's very important. Tea objects were treated
with a special reverence. Now that's different than being precious, if you know what I mean. I mean I'm not talking
about the preciousness of the material, but they were revered and taken care of very well. So the Japanese would make Paulownia boxes and they would keep it
in the Paulownia box which keeps it from
expanding and contracting in different weather and that stuff. So they take exceptionally
good care of things. - [Voiceover] It is absolutely gorgeous and I have a totally
new appreciation for it. Thank you so much. - [Voiceover] I'm glad you like it.