Fire-flame Cooking Vessel (Ka'en Doki)
c. 2500 BCE
- Medium
- Earthenware with carved and applied decoration
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- height: 61 cm (24 in.); Diameter: 55.8 cm (21 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Jōmon period (c. 10,500–300 BCE)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Archaeologists call this kind of vessel “fire flame,” ka’en in Japanese, because its top resembles flames. No one knows why the design was made or what it actually represents. This example is remarkable for the amount that is original. It was recently determined that a bottom from a different vessel was used during its reconstruction in the 1900s, creating a false impression of its intended scale; it would have initially been about four inches shorter. Since their lower portions were set into holes in the ground during use, bases of pots like this one often deteriorate and may be missing when they are excavated.
