Similar bottle sold 204,650 GBP @Christies, 19 June 2002

𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐦 (link)

Bottles of this type, containing sacred sake, are traditionally offered before the altars of Buddhist temples. The influence of the Chinese meiping form is apparent in the small cylindrical mouth and the S-shaped curve running from the broad shoulders to the slender waist and widening again towards the base.

Inscribed on the object
“Kichi, mark, Kanbun juuni nen, mizunoe-ne, shōgatsu kichijutsu, Fukui Mitsunoya, kao”
[Group “kichi” with a mark, an auspicious day in the first month of the Kanbun 12th year (1672), the year of mizunoe-ne, Fukui Mitsunoya, with kao”]

Comment in the exhibition catalogue
“Symphony of Red and Black, Beauty of Negoro. Number 91. Negoro heishi, one item, maximum height 32.4 cm, Muromachi Period (15-16th century), inscribed with “Kanbun 12th year” which indicates that it was the year when the object was later restored, a private collection]

Exhibited in 2017
Title of the Exhibition: “Value of Mankind, Value of Artifact” (Mono no chikara, Hito no chikara: Jomon kara gendai made, hito to kogei no aida ni yadoru chikara in Japanese)
“Kokugakuin University Museum” (edited, chief editor Uchikawa Takeshi)
Exhibition: 28 July 2017 – 9 October 2017.

Fukui and Mitsunoya are likely to be names or locations inscribed at the time when the item was restored for conservation in Kanbun 12 (1672).

Literature

Mizuguchi Saburo and Arakawa Hirokazu, Negoro (Atami: Atami Bijutsukan, 1966), cat. no. 1.
Nara Kenritsu Bijutsukan [Nara Prefectural Museum of Art], Tokubetsuten: Negoro no bi [Special exhibition: The beauty of Negoro] (Nara: 1975), cat. no. 71.
Kawada Sadamu, Negoro-nuri [Negoro ware], Nihon no bijutsu, 120 (Tokyo; Shibundo, April 1976), no. 4.
Santori Bijutsukan [Suntory Museum of Art], Negoro-nuri [Negoro ware] (Tokyo: 1979), no. 2.
Kawada Sadamu, Negoro (Kyoto: Shikosha, 1985), cat. no. 9.
Sakai-shi Hakubutsukan [Sakai City Museum], Shu-urushi (Negoro): Sono yo to bi: Shunki tokubetsuten [Red Lacquer: Utility and Beauty of Negoro: Spring Special Exhibition] (26 April - 25 May 1986; Sakai: 1986), cat. no. 7.
[Anon.], 'Tokushu Negoro [Negoro: Special edition]', Yuraku, 9 (1990), p. 12.
Arakawa Hirokazu and others, Nihon no shitsugei 5: Urushi-e, Negoro [Lacquer art of Japan 5: Urushi-e and Negoro] (Standard edition; Tokyo: Chuokoronsha, 1991), cat. no. 75.
Ishikawa-ken Wajima Shitsugei Bijutsukan [Ishikawa Wajima Urushi Art Museum], Tokubetsuten: Negoro, sono katachi to iro [Special exhibition of Negoro: Its form and colour] (10 October - 7 December 1998; Wajima: 1998), cat. no. 1.