The Story of Chigusa: A Japanese Tea Jar’s 700-year History An
online workshop organized by the Freer|Sackler, Smithsonian
Institution Wednesday 2 November, 9:00-10:30 PM Eastern Time
(EDT) Thursday 3 November, 10:00-11:30 AM Japan Time (JST) What
can a single jar tell us about how objects acquired history and
meaning within Japanese tea culture? The Freer Gallery recently
acquired a tea-leaf storage jar named Chigusa. In so doing, the
museum became yet another participant in a seven-century-long
process, through which a Chinese jar came to Japan and was
transformed into a famous and much-admired container for tea
leaves, even acquiring a personal name. Tea masters’ diaries and
connoisseur’s handbooks described and ranked it; successive
owners endowed it with Chinese brocades, silk cords,
inscriptions, documents, and multiple boxes. Chigusa has been
described as a “time capsule”— an embodiment of the fascinating
and complex process by which tea-related objects accrued meaning
and value. Four scholars gathered