A pottery kake hanaire (hanging flower vessel) in the form of a hechima (sponge gourd) incised with a poem by Otagaki Rengetsu.

Signed Rengetsu

Japan, 19th century, Edo/Meiji period.

An awase-bako (fitted wood box) inscribed:

Otagaki Rengetsu saku kake hanaire (Hanging flower vessel made by Otagaki Rengetsu).

Provenance: Hasegawa Hosai (date unknown), a sashimonoshi (fine woodwork master) who worked for sukisha (tea masters and tea utensils collectors) in the Chukyo region (Aichi prefecture).

Inscribed poem on vessel:

Yado kasanu

hito no tsurasa wo nasake nite

oboro tsukiyo no

hana no shita fushi

Turned away at the inn

I take this unkindness as grace…

resting instead

beneath the hazy moon

and evening blossoms.*

Otagaki Rengetsu composed this verse from the perspective of a traveller who was cold-heartedly rejected at an inn. Unable to sleep under a roof, she had to sleep outside. Seeing cherry blossom in full bloom under the moonlight, she interpreted her situation as an unexpected gift. This is one of the most representative poems by Rengetsu as there are multiple ceramic works and paintings with this poem known.

For more details of Rengestu and her works, see:

Frank Feltens, ed., Japan in the Age of Modernization: The Arts of Otagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai, (Washington, D.C., 2023);

National Gallery of Australia ed., Black Robe White Mist: art of the Japanese Buddhist nun Rengestu, (Canberra, 2007).

*Translation of the poem by the Rengetsu Foundation Project, Kyoto; John Walker and Kazuya Oyama (quoted in: Frank Feltens, ed., Japan in the Age of Modernization: The Arts of Otagaki Rengetsu and Tomioka Tessai, (Washington, D.C., 2023), p.68).