Description
This ceramic urn was excavated from a Nara-period (710-794) tomb in Nakoso, Takanoguchi-machi, Wakayama Prefecture. Cinerary urns such as this held the ashes of the deceased after cremation. During the Nara period, Tenpyô (729-749) culture flourished under the strong influence of Tang China. This is an example of Nara tricolor ceramics, fashioned after Tang tricolor earthenware with overglazes of white, yellowish brown, and green. The shape of the urn is not Chinese, however, but typical of contemporary Japanese pieces, showing that implementation of imported techniques was selective. Similar examples of Nara tricolor ceramics have been handed down in the Shôsô-in repository.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
September 14, 2026