MOMOYAMA PERIOD (LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY)

For similar examples see Kawada Sadamu, Negoro [Negoro lacquer] (Kyoto, 1985), no. 218, with the same raised bands but octagonal rather than round, and no. 212, round but with a different-shaped spout.

Negoro lacquers are traditionally associated with the Negoro Temple complex in Naka-gun, Kii province (Wakayama prefecture) founded in the twelfth century by monks of the Shingon Buddhist sect and best known today for its great 40-metre pagoda, completed in 1496. The Negoro temples grew enormously in power and wealth during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and their warrior monks played a major part in the civil wars of the time until they were crushed by the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi who destroyed the complex in 1585, leaving only the pagoda and one other structure.

Despite the persistence of the tradition linking the Negoro temples to lacquer production, only one example has come to light that is probably connected to the complex. This is a tray in the Rokujizo Temple (Ibaragi prefecture) inscribed with the characters saiku Negoro Shigemune [work by Shigemune of Negoro] and Hongan Hoin Keihan, the name of a priest who died in 1538. While a number of pieces have survived in the general vicinity of the temple they do not, as a group, exhibit any great differences from the corpus of surviving lacquers in the Negoro manner, so it is difficult either to associate them with the temple or to establish a canon of 'true' Negoro pieces which can be distinguished from those made elsewhere.

The best-known of the earliest examples of the ware is the so-called Hinomaru-bon, a circular tray in the Todaiji dated Einin 10 [1298] which conforms to the modern conception of Negoro, with a durable surface that has survived the wear and tear of time, is of sturdy construction and has the characteristic, much prized by mid-20th century Japanese commentators such as Yanagi Soetsu and Bernard Leach, of being a common utensil and yet also a noble work of art. The many dated examples of Negoro ware that have survived in Japan enable us to trace the course of its development to a limited extent and there is a discernible trend towards a greater elegance and lightness of form. The majority of published yuto [hot-water ewers] appear to be of sixteenth- or seventeenth-century date. Because this yuto is somewhat lighter in appearance, and has a larger and thinner handle than examples attributed to the sixteenth century, it seems reasonable to suggest that it too may date from around 1600.

Conceptually speaking, Negoro wares can be placed at the intersection of several 20th-century approaches to Japanese art. They have, for example, been appropriated as noted above by the founding fathers of the Mingei movement who were particularly interested in the way that the red layer of lacquer wears away in places to reveal the black beneath ('the more this bowl is used, the more beautiful it is destined to become'), even going so far as to claim, quite incorrectly, that it is this combination of red over black that defines the ware.1. The fact that so few Negoro wares are interestingly signed has placed them outside the purview of the mainstream British lacquer-collecting tradition, but their very lack of ornament and their powerful forms have earned them a place in that view of Japanese material culture that takes as its starting-point the balance and simplicity of the traditional interior. The association with communal Buddhist living - clear, frozen mornings in remote mountain temples, steaming rice served from a great red bowl - also strikes a chord with the West's many followers of Zen. 'Negoro', then, defines not only a rare, mysterious and beautiful type of lacquer, but also a contemporary view of Japan.

1 Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Mingei - The Living Tradition in Japanese Arts (Glasgow, 1991), no. 135.