This vessel from the Joseon Dynasty features an elongated neck, wide bulbous body, and short foot, as well as four characters in a clear, dark cobalt underglaze. The characters 祭, 玄, 酒, and 甁 (“offering”, “hyeonju”, “wine”, and “bottle”) are the jehyeon jubyeong, Chinese characters inscribed on wine bottles used for Confucian ancestral rituals. During these rituals the vessel would hold Hyeonju (literally translated to “mysterious wine” but in actuality just pure water) and placed at the center of an altar as an offering for ancestral spirits. By using a vessel marked with Jehyeon Jubyeong, a family visually demonstrated that the contents were sacred and designated solely for honoring their lineage. These rituals were part of a larger cultural shift in the Joseon period where courtly practices were adopted as a part of everyday life and objects once reserved for royalty became more readily available.

This jar was part of a Japanese collection and features kintsugi repairs, continuing it’s legacy as an important object. It comes with a kiribako that describes it as a “sake bottle,” perhaps pointing to it’s previous purpose.