Seto ware tsubo jar with floral design in ash glaze

Explanation

This tsubo jar is decorated with herbal patterns carved with a spatula, and three grooves circle the body above the shoulder. A yellow-green glaze is seen on the top part. This style of tsubo jar has been known from the thirteenth century, and notable features include the mouth opening slightly outward and the body in a gently concaved cylinder. It resembles the celadon jar for storing liquor from the sixteenth-century Yuan dynasty China. This particular vessel is believed to have once had a lid from the same firing.