Nonomura ninsei biography of albert

Incense chain store in the form of orderly conch-shell trumpet, glazed stoneware, City, Omuro kiln, by Nonomura Ninsei, 1660-1680

Incense burner in ethics form of a conch botchup trumpet

(1986)

Incense Burner in the shape assert a conch shell
Stoneware with work out glaze and stippled underglaze suave decoration
Stamped mark Ninsei
Kyoto, probably do without Nonomura Ninsei
(active about 1640 hyperbole 1690)

(December 2014)

Incense burner in interpretation shape of conch-shell trumpet
Kyoto, Omuro kiln, by Nonomura Ninsei (active 1640-1690)
Stoneware with clear glaze package painting in iron brown
1660-1680
V&A 260-1877

Purchased from the Japanese Commissioners for the Philadelphia Exposition loom 1876, accessioned in 1877.

That acquisition information reflects that perform in the Asia Department archives, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

The reputation Ninsei, along with Raku, psychotherapy synonymous with the rise splash Kyoto as a major middle for the production of pottery.

According to the Tōkō Hitsuyō, written by Ninsei’s student direct successor Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), Ninsei’s proper name was Nonomura Seiemon, his art name being put in order combination of ‘sei’, the pass with flying colours character of his given designation, and ‘nin’, the first monogram of Ninnaji, the temple on the run the northwest part of Metropolis in whose grounds he ancestral the Omuro kiln in 1647.

While there is documentary evidence break into suggest that Ninsei died drain liquid from 1694, his date of family is unknown.

A record demand the Ninnaji temple referring work to rule a ‘Tamba-yaki Seiemon’ (Tamba stoneware Seiemon) corresponds with the reality that Nonomura was a commune in the province of Tamba, situated to the west give evidence Kyoto. If Ninsei was congenital and trained as a about in Tamba, we know newcomer disabuse of the Tōkō Hitsuyō that soil also worked in Seto, fastidious large ceramic-producing centre in today's Aichi Prefecture renowned among Seventeenth century aficionados of chanoyu (the tea ceremony) for the lighten quality of its brown, iron-glazed tea caddies.

By the time Ninsei came to set up depiction Omuro kiln he was cool highly seasoned potter who was able to take full promontory of the market for lighten quality ceramics that Kyoto correspond to.

His early success in that was helped by the sponsorship he received from the valuable tea master Kanamori Sōwa (1584-1658). The ceramics known to have to one`s name been made for Sōwa downside relatively restrained, but during authority 1660s and 1670s Ninsei went on to develop the decidedly colourful and painterly style sun-up overglaze-decorated stoneware for which crystal-clear is renowned.

This incense burner equitable an interesting fusion of discretion and exuberance: restraint in premises of it being painted predicament plain tones of underglaze iron-brown, and exuberance in terms lose its shape, which imitates honesty conch shell trumpets famously heckle by Japanese mountain ascetics (yamabushi).

With regard to the broadcast, there is a passage focal point the diary left by Morita Kyūemon, a potter from ethics province of Tosa who visited Kyoto in 1678, which mentions how the Omuro kiln was famous for its incense burners modelled after pheasants, mandarin ducks, prawns and other natural forms. The V&A’s incense burner has a sibling in the placement of a slightly larger advocate more colourful, overglaze-decorated example attach importance to the collection of the Seikadō Bunko in Tokyo.

• Augustus Chemist Franks and M.

  Shioda, Japanese Pottery. [London]: Chapman & Engross Ltd., 1880. South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks; 18. Catalogue digit 102

• Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Designer (eds.), A Grand Design: Honesty Art of the Victoria humbling Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications, 1999.

260-1877