Rare Antique Japanese Ceramic Takatori Ware Hoso Mizusashi

This small ceramic container from Edo period Japan circa 1800s was made in the Takatori Kilns in Fukuoka Prefecture. This type of small, tall jar with a lid was specifically created as a Hoso Mizusashi (slender freshwater container) for tea ceremony (Chado). The jar features a simple cup-form with slightly tapered body on a recess foot ring. The brown glaze covers the entire surface except the base, on top of which mottled natural ash glaze was applied dripping down from the rim to both exterior and interior surfaces in a random and abstract pattern. This wabi-sabi effect was desired by the Chado masters. The Mizusashi has its original turned-wood lid with an ivory top knob, which complete the piece with an elegant proportion. The base retains an old paper label indicating its provenance as shown.
Compared this Mazusashi to item 1923.414 in the collection of Art Institute of Chicago.
Takatori is a historic ware with a 400-year history of continued production in Fukuoka City's Sawara District, as well as in Nogata City in Fukuoka Prefecture.
Takatori ware was originally fired at the base of Mount Takatori in Fukuoka Prefecture's Nogata City, and because of the Imjin War, Kuroda Nagamasa brought back a Korean potter named Hassan (Japanese name Hachizou Shigesada) who began baking Takatori ware as early as in the 1600s. in the nineteenth century, the Takatori style became known as one of the Seven Famous Kilns of Enshu, which made wares following the preferences of the tea ceremony master Kobori Enshū.