Sake Cup

 About the Artwork

Otagaki Rengetsu was a mostly self-taught potter. She typically crafted her pottery by gradually building up the clay by hand and inscribing the surface with waka poetry, as can be seen on this small sake cup. Waka is a 31-syllable Japanese poetic form that Rengetsu pursued her whole life. The angular calligraphic style seen on this cup resulted mainly from her practice of incising right into the clay and needing to maintain legibility. Rengetsu relied to that end on the kana script, the Japanese form of syllabic writing, instead of using Chinese characters. Her graphs are clearly distinct and, atypically, not linked together. The inscription that circles the cup reads:

            In the fields

            In the mountains

            I was enthralled

            On the way home

            The autumn moon

            Accompanied me

            Right to my room.

            Rengetsu Age 79.