Pedestalled Dish
c. 1000–500 BCE
- Medium
- burnished earthenware with carved and impressed decoration
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- Overall: 9.5 x 19 x 5.1 cm (3 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 2 in.); Pedestal: 3.5 x 3.5 cm (1 3/8 x 1 3/8 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
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The Jomon period (10,500-300 BC) marks the beginning of the Japanese ceramic tradition, one of the most vibrant in world history. Major features such as an emphasis on asymmetrical silhouettes, great attention to surface texture, technological simplicity, and ambivalence to bright color already appear in this era. Late Jomon vessels are typically formed of a dense clay paste, and during this period, smaller serving vessels appear, in contrast to earlier deep storage or cooking vessel shapes. New types of surface decoration-carved rather than impressed into the clay body-herald the arrival of a distinctive aesthetic. The attachment of the pedestal to this shallow bowl, as well as the vessel's rather thin walls, also identify a new stage in ceramic production in Japan.
