Tea Bowl with Motifs from the “Autumn Excursion” Chapter of The Tale of Genji 色絵紅葉賀図茶碗いろえもみじがずちゃわん
Description
Ninsei was a leading potter in 17th-century Kyoto and drew inspiration from the city’s court culture. He painted this tea bowl with a scene from [The Tale of Genji], an 11th-century work of court literature considered the oldest novel in the world. He used a design technique called [rusu moyō] (empty design), in which the characters are intentionally omitted from the scene.
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
March 16, 2026