Tea Caddy "Hitorine"

Small, brown, thinly potted container with ivory lid. It has a short neck and round shoulder; The dark glaze is randomly applied from shoulder to the middle of the body. The part at the bottom is unglazed. The bottom has no foot and unglazed. The lid is concaved from the rim toward the center knob.
Seto Shinbei
c. 1600-1647
The container is used for storing tea powder in tea ceremony. Tea master Kobori Enshû named it "Hitorine" or "Sleeping alone," a name adopted from a poem possibly composed by Enshû with allusion to a classic poem by Heian court poet and painter Fujiwara Takanobu (1142-1205).
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker
1954/1.532A&B
Saturday, April 1, 2023