Otagaki Rengetsu | Sake pouring vessel

Among her various creations, Rengetsu is perhaps best known for the exquisite vessels that she crafted for both the sencha and the chanoyu traditions of tea drinking. However, she also created a great number of bottles, flasks and cups for another beverage - sake. As with her other ceramics, Rengetsu's sake wares are adorned with her poems inscribed in her exquisite calligraphy, resonating playfully with the mood of sake drinking. (Meher McArthur, The Sake Wares of Otagaki Rengetsu, Black Robe White Mist, p. 77.)
 
A charming sake pouring vessel (saketsugi) with an incised poem. The poem on this vessel is
unrecorded in Rengetsu's published poems. The
bamboo loop handle is a later replacement.
 
Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)
Sake pouring vessel
Glazed ceramic
H 8.5 cm (3 1/4 in.)
D 8 cm (3 in.)
Wooden box