The Story of Chigusa
A Japanese Tea Jar's 700-Year History

The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
invite you to participate in a free online workshop.
Sunday 20 March, 9 - 10:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Monday 21 March, 10 - 11:30 AM Japan Time (JST)

To register go to http://smithsonianconference.org/teajar.
What can a single jar tell us about how objects acquired history and
meaning within Japanese tea culture? When the Freer Gallery of Art
recently acquired a tea-leaf storage jar named Chigusa, the museum
became yet another participant in a seven-century-long story, in which a
Chinese jar came to Japan and was transformed into a famous and
much-admired container for tea leaves, even acquiring a personal name.
Tea masters' diaries and connoisseurs' handbooks described and ranked
the jar; successive owners endowed it with Chinese brocades, silk cords,
inscriptions, documents, and multiple boxes. Chigusa has been described
as a "time capsule" - an embodiment of the fascinating and complex
process by which tea-related objects accrued meaning and value.

Only a few hundred such jars with comparable pedigrees survive in Japan,
and few are as extensively documented.

Four scholars gathered in Washington recently-in Chigusa's inspiring
presence-to consider aspects of the jar's story. In this free online
workshop, they will share their thoughts and discoveries, and then
engage in discussion with participants.

Presenters
Louise Allison Cort, Curator for Ceramics, Smithsonian's Freer |Sackler
How a Chinese jar became Chigusa; why Chigusa came to the Freer

Takeuchi Jun'ichi, Director, Hosokawa Collection-Eisei Bunko
How did tea men look at Chigusa 400 years ago?

Andrew Watsky, Professor, Department of Art and Architecture, Princeton
University
Chigusa's name(s)

Oka Yoshiko, Professor, Faculty of Cultural and Historical Studies,
Otemae University
Who owned Chigusa?

More information
A press release about Chigusa can be found in the Freer|Sackler press
room, http://www.asia.si.edu/press/past/prTea.

Sponsors
"The Story of Chigusa" online workshop is generously funded by Toshiba
International Foundation.

Support for Mr. Takeuchi's participation provided by the Japan Society
of Boston and Continental Airlines.