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(c) 2021 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Tea Jar (Natsume)
(c) 2021 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2021 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Tea Jar (Natsume)

maker (active Japan, 17th century)
Date17th century
Place MadeJapan, East Asia
MediumLacquered wood
Dimensions7.6 cm (3 in.)
ClassificationsVessels
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberCR34n12.a-b
eMuseum ID728414
EmbARK ObjectID15692
Previous NumberCR34n12
Previous NumberC26-12
Original NumberNo. 13
TMS Source ID4232
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on view
Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
BibliographyNotesWilliam Thrasher and Caroline Graboys. "The Beginnings of Chanoyu in America." Chanoyu Quarterly (1984), pp. 20, 24, 29, 30, ill. (as Japanese, as possibly 18th century)
Sunao Nakamura (ed.). Okakura Kakuzo: Collected English Writings, III (Tokyo, 1984), pp. 61-63, 58-59.
Victoria Weston. East Meets West: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Okakura Kakuzo. Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum V. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1992), p. 28.
Rebecca G. Breslow. "Humanity in a Tea-cup: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Okakura Kakuzo" in Chanoyu Quarterly: Tea and the Arts of Japan, No. 85 (1996), pp. 51-53.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), pp. 176-77.
Louise Allison Cort. "Mrs. Gardner's 'Set of Tea-Things.' A Vehicle for Friendship, Power, & Aesthetic Instruction" in Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 385-86, 393, 396, fig 11. (as attributed to Yosai Hidetsugu, as dated 17th century)
Holly Salmon, "From Tree Sap to Tea Jar: East Asian Lacquer," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 9 February 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/tree-sap-tea-jar-east-asian-lacquer 
MarksNotesInscribed (carved) (interior, bottom): Hide
ProvenanceNotesGift from Okakura Kakuzo (1862-1913), Japanese art historian and philosopher, to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 11 September 1905.
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