7. Oribe charcoal brazier (hibachi)
White clay, glazed in cream, green, and brown, with a few reddish-brown patches; bottom left unglazed, decoration applied with a brush. Weight: 4.87 kg (10.7 lb). Rim diameter: 24 cm (9-1/4 in); foot ring diameter: 20.5 cm (8 in). Height: 22.3 cm (8-3/4 in).
This is a ceramic charcoal brazier. The pot is filled with sand to within a few inches of the rim, and lit charcoal is laid atop the sand to warm a room or heat water.
The body of the hibachi is irregularly shaped, with bulges and indentations. The surface is ringed horizontally with shallow grooves, as if the pot had been built with coils of clay that were not completely smoothed out. At the top the green glaze has pooled in these (visible as darker lines). In several places, a spatula was dragged across the wet clay to gouge the surface. A circular foot ring, approximately a half-centimeter (a quarter inch) high and a centimeter (3/8 in) wide, was added to the body.
As is common in Oribe-ware, the green glaze has been used to create areas for decoration, which was done using a brush and brown glaze (probaby an iron-rich slip). There are four such panels. At the front, drying persimmons hang from the eaves of a tiled roof. A quarter turn clockwise are three clumps of leafy vegetation. The next panel depicts the poles and cloth hangings used to enclose a space out-of-doors. Finally, the last panel has a few amorphous blobs.
Purchased at the Japan Trade Center in San Francisco in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
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