Curator Tour | Japanese Ceramics from the Collection

Join curator Sol Jung for a tour of Japanese ceramics from the Freer Gallery of Art Collection. Learn about both iconic and lesser-known aspects of Japanese culture through ceramics, with a focus on the environment, notions of the body, historical crises, and new research findings.
Japan’s changing landscapes and local ecologies affected how ceramics were made. Meanwhile, Japan also developed its own technique of repairing damaged ceramics through the combination of lacquer and gold powder, which is known as kintsugi. Analysis of both broken and whole ceramics can give us new insights into how these works were designed, used, and valued.

Please meet at gallery 5 for the tour. We recommend you register in advance.

Accessibility: The public elevator in the West Building (Freer Gallery of Art) is out of service, so your route to the event location may take a few more minutes than usual. Use the accessible entrance at the corner of Independence Avenue and 12th Street SW, and follow the directions when you arrive. Get more accessibility details.

Tea bowl, White Satsuma ware, Japan, Edo period, 17th century, Stoneware with clear, crackled glaze, stained by ink; gold lacquer repairs, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.323.

Host or Publisher Freer and Sackler Galleries