Negoro ware ewer

Dr. Meredith Graybill: [0:00] I’m standing here in the galleries, the Japanese galleries, at the Portland Art Museum. We are looking at a recent acquisition. It is a ewer, which is a particular kind of pitcher, that comes to us from late-16th century Japan.

Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:16] The first thing that comes to mind is its material, because when I first walked up to this, I imagined in some way, probably because of the sides, that it was metal. And when I came close to it, I realized that it wasn’t, it’s wood. Is that right?

Dr. Graybill: [0:33] Yes, it’s wood. What’s interesting is that the body — and we often talk about pots in this anthropomorphic way — the body has a very slight…It’s almost a cylinder, but it tapers a little bit at the foot. The body is sort of in the shape of a bucket.

[0:50] This isn’t carved from a single block of wood, but it’s rather a strip of wood that was steamed and wrapped. Then we see these ridges on it. Those are actually strips of bamboo that are like little reinforcing girders that help hold that steamed wood in that wrapped cylindrical shape.

Dr. Zucker: [1:12] So it’s really a process of construction that’s made in a way that is not dissimilar to the way that we might treat metal.

Dr. Graybill: [1:21] If you can think of a sheet of metal hammered…

Dr. Zucker: [1:23] Yes.

Dr. Graybill: [1:23] …and then bent, that’s like that. What is so interesting — if we think, what are the normal ways that you handle wood? Well, we think of carving wood.

Dr. Zucker: [1:32] Yes, exactly.

Dr. Graybill: [1:33] That idea of making a vessel by wrapping a slab of wood into a cylinder and then putting a bottom on it, that is a technique in which Japanese woodmakers excel.

Dr. Zucker: [1:46] There’s a delicacy and a kind of, I think that I get the sense of the thinness of that, of the wall that seems to me only possible in metal, and I think that’s why I jumped there. But I think that really speaks to the extraordinary tradition out of which this is coming. I see it as incredibly impressive.

[2:06] Can we talk a little bit about the way the wood is treated, and the color, which I find beautiful? It’s got this almost gorgeous — almost patina.

Dr. Graybill: [2:13] Yes, it does have a patina. This ware, it’s an example of Japanese lacquerware. So the wood turning, the wood bending, the wood shaping happens, [and] then it goes through a number of stages of being coated with lacquer.

[2:30] Lacquer is found in much of Southeast Asia and East Asia. In Japan, Japanese lacquer was so treasured by the Europeans when trade began that analogous to the way that we use the word “china” to associate ceramics with China, Europeans used to call works that were lacquered “japanned.”

Dr. Zucker: [2:51] Is that right?

Dr. Graybill: [2:51] It was so associated with Japan. Lacquer is the sap of a lac tree. It’s a naturally occurring sap. So think of maple syrup, and think of it as something that trees ooze out at a particular season of the year. You have to go and tap it. It’s thick and viscous like maple syrup. Interestingly, it’s also toxic.

Dr. Zucker: [3:15] Really?

Dr. Graybill: [3:15] It has the same chemicals in it that poison ivy does. So lacquer workers have to spend a lifetime building up resistance to this. You have this lacquer, and then there are traditional colors to dye it.

[3:28] In Japan, those two traditional colors were black, which you did essentially by mixing lamp black, a kind of soot, with it. The other was what you see here, this fantastic cinnabar red, by mixing in cinnabar, which is powered mercury.

Dr. Zucker: [3:44] So this was toxic on two levels?

Dr. Graybill: [3:45] This is toxic on two levels. Yes.

Dr. Zucker: [3:47] I suppose one was safe drinking water out of this, but it does bring that to mind.

Dr. Graybill: [3:53] By the time it dries…

Dr. Zucker: [3:54] It’s OK.

Dr. Graybill: [3:55] …all that toxicity is gone. What happens is, lacquer has to be painted on in many many coats, but what lacquer does — and lacquer is used in East Asia from the 4th century B.C. onwards — lacquer can make a wooden object like a high-fired porcelain, it can make it perfectly impervious to leaks. It can hold hot water, it can hold cold water. It can handle variety of temperatures. It’s perfect for containers for liquids.

Dr. Zucker: [4:25] It’s also gorgeous. The surface has almost a kind of translucence, that’s this kind of milky, kind of beautiful…Is that original or is that a result of its age?

Dr. Graybill: [4:37] Well, both. Because it’s many layers of lacquer, and lacquer layers are very thin and then they have to dry and then it’s polished, and then other layers put on and it’s polished. And the secret of this particular ware, this comes from a monastic workshop in Japan. It’s called Negoro. That’s name of the monastery so we call this Negoro ware.

[5:00] First several layers are black and then the last layers are red. If you look at the handle, you can see where it is touched the most often, the lacquer has worn a little bit thin and a little bit of the black is coming through. That is the secret of Negoro ware. It’s seeing that suggestion of black underneath the red.

Dr. Zucker: [5:22] It gives an incredible dimension.

Dr. Graybill: [5:23] It’s like looking to this pool of red and then seeing the black underneath. I think it really gives this depth.

Dr. Zucker: [5:29] This is an object that comes from the 16th century, and yet it is so pristine. It is in such incredible condition. It looks as if it was made just a few years ago. It speaks to, I think, to the resilience, as you were saying, of the lacquer. Is it also that because they were in a monastic environment, that these were kept out of everyday use? Why would this be in such good condition? Do we have any idea?

Dr. Graybill: [5:56] Although Negoro ware is very, very highly treasured today, and this particular shape and in this condition is extremely rare — we know of two similar pieces in American collections, but that’s all that I know of right now of this particular shape, this shape belongs to a particular moment in history — it would not have, to its original users or its original makers, been particularly a precious object. We wouldn’t think of it the way that Chinese would think of something of jade.

Dr. Zucker: [6:26] This was not safeguarded as a particularly special?

Dr. Graybill: [6:29] It wouldn’t have been hidden away. In fact, that’s great, because look at the wonderful black that we can see in the handle. It’s not something that was brought out at Christmas. It was something that would have been used.

[6:39] But you’re quite right that because it was in a monastery, and monasteries are likely to have the resources to have a big, huge storehouse with foot-thick or two-foot thick clay walls, that it would not be subject to the kind of frequent fires that would happen to, let’s say, an urban merchant’s collection. That’s one.

[7:02] The other thing that’s very important [is that] tea objects were treated with a special reverence. Now, that’s different from being precious, if you know what I mean. I’m not talking about preciousness of the material, but they were revered and taken care of very well.

Dr. Zucker: [7:16] They were used. I understand.

Dr. Graybill: [7:17] The Japanese would make Paulownia boxes and they would keep it in the Paulownia box, which keeps it from expanding and contracting in different weather. They take exceptionally good care of things.

Dr. Zucker: [7:28] It is absolutely gorgeous. I have a totally new appreciation for it. Thank you so much.

Dr. Graybill: [7:33] I’m glad you like it.

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