EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY), THE FIRST ATTRIBUTED TO NAKAMURA SOTETSU IV (HACHIROBEI; 1726-1791)

The Kinrinji tea container is named for a caddy of raw mountain ivy with richly mottled grain Emperor Go-Daigo (r. 1318-39) is said to have ordered to take to tea with a monk. The vessels are typically cylindrical with shallow, slightly overhanging lids reminiscent of sutra containers or the overhanging eaves of temples. For the fourteenth-century caddy in the collection of Daiun-in Temple, Kyoto, see Ryoichi Fujioka et al., Tea Ceremony Utensils, translated and adapted by Louise Allison Cort, vol. 3 of Arts of Japan (Tokyo and New York: Weatherhill/Shibundo, 1973), pl. 53.