Indigo-blue Sake Ewer

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Place of production or style: Japan
Number of components: 1
Format and materials: SG 3.51
Dimensions (in cm): H. 17.0, W. 20.5
Date of production: Edo period 18-19th century

This saké ewer has a bold form that combines gentleness and a fresh simplicity. Such ewers were originally made of metal, with a body similar to that of an elongated, deepened kyūsu green teapot, and were used to warm saké. This work was probably used, however, to serve cold saké. Its arched, hollow lid was made with the same technique used in creating the Song-dynasty Chinese glass sharira vessel for ashes in a statue of the bodhisattva Jizō at Denkōji Temple in Nara. Full-scale glass production did not, however, begin in Japan until the mid seventeenth century, at Nagasaki, after fascination with the glass objects brought by the Portuguese and Spanish as gifts inspired research on glassmaking.

Notable Works

Indigo-blue Sake Ewer

SUNTORY MUSEUM of ART