Kiyomizu Rokubei III  三代 清水六兵衛 · TOMIOKA TESSAI 富岡鉄斎 · ŌTAGAKI RENGETSU 大田垣蓮月

In his latest article, "Reinventing Oneself: The Artistic Career of Ōtagaki Rengetsu," published in: Japan in the Age of Modernization: The Arts of Ōtagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai, Rengetsu specialist Paul Berry notes that we know from one account given by Rengetsu herself that she occasionally inscribed her poems on sophisticated pots made on special commission by professional potters from the Kiyomizu area. In this account, Rengetsu mentions Kiyomizu Rokubei III, among others.

Galerie Kommoss is proud to present the only known, fully documented collaboration work (gassaku) by Kyōto potter Kiyomizu Rokubei III (1820-1883), Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) and Tomioka Tessai (1837-1924). The lidded water jar was made by Rokubei of grey stoneware and was then loosely glazed with a white slip on which Tessai painted chrysanthemum flowers in iron brown and Rengetsu inscribed her poem on the lid:

たなぞこを

うけて待間も

千代やへん

のめば若ゆと

きくの下露

In the palms of my hands

Waiting for Eons to pass…

I hear drinking this

Will make me younger—

The chrysanthemums’ hanging dew.

Rengetsu signed the poem with her age of 75 and Tessai’s box inscription tells us the year 1867. The beautiful poem, which was later officially published in Rengetsu’s anthology Ama no karumo in 1870, indicates the function of the jar: It was used as freshwater container for the tea ceremony, giving the poetic impression that it was filled with the fresh dew from chrysanthemum flowers.

Despite the Buddhist implications of dew drops, in which the fleeting world mirrors, here, a more Daoist interpretation comes into play: In Daoism, the meaningful symbol was believed — as the poem by Rengetsu tells us — to be an elixir of eternal youth and health that grants immortal life. Already the Zhuangzi (circa 4th century BCE) tells us of the Daoist sages as spiritualized beings, dwelling far apart from the turbulent world of men, dining on air and sipping dew.

References:

Murakami Sodō: Rengetsu-ni zenshū, 1980, p. 26.

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