Momoyama to early Edo period (16th century)
Donated by the Homma family
This water jar was fired in Inbe, Bizen Province (modern day Bizen, Okayama Prefecture). The box is labeled “Inbe ware,” as during the Edo period Inbe ware was considered distinct from Bizen ware.
There are many heirloom Bizen mizusashi water jars, especially from the Keichō period, which were produced in such a way as to emphasize their deliberately distorted features. This mizusashi has a distorted body with handles on both sides and the number “one” (一) carved on the bottom. It originally belonged to the Abe clan, who were lords of the Bingo-Fukuyama Domain (present-day eastern Hiroshima Prefecture), and was passed down to the Homma family from Jōfuku-ji Temple in Sakata in 1895.