Dish with Autumn Grasses and Rocks

late 1500s–early 1600s

Dish with Autumn Grasses and Rocks, late 1500s–early 1600s. Japan, Momoyama period (1573-1615) to Edo period (1615-1858). Stoneware with underglaze iron oxide slip and incised designs (Mino ware, Shino type); overall: 20 cm (7 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1966.24 Mino ware is stoneware produced in the Mino area of present-day Gifu prefecture in central Japan. Works like this piece are called nezumi-shino, or “mouse-gray” Shino, after the glazing technique. The gray color and white design of grasses were achieved by applying an iron oxide slip to the surface and carving through it to the white clay, and then covering the whole surface in glaze and firing the object. In its design, this serving dish emulates Chinese ceramic prototypes, but its shape recalls wooden and lacquered trays commonly used in Japan at the time.