Pottery vessel

From Japan
Late Yayoi period, around AD 300

This pottery vessel, with its wide mouth and carefully balanced foot, was probably used as a storage jar for grain. It is made of rolls of clay, and you can see where the potter has smoothed the surface into shape by cutting away.

Pots of the Yayoi period (about 300 BC - AD 300) were generally less decorated than the earlier Jōmon cord-decorated wares, though wave patterns were sometimes applied using a comb.

The pot was excavated by William Gowland near the Unebi kofun (burial mound) in Nara.

L. Smith, V. Harris and T. Clark, Japanese art: masterpieces in (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)