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Artist/Maker
Robert Toyokazu Troxell
(Japanese-American, 1949 – 2025)
Date2007
MediumWood-fired ceramic
DimensionsOverall: 7 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 4 3/4 in. (19.1 × 21.6 × 12.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of the family of R. Toyokazu Troxell
Object number2025.22
Not on view
DescriptionRobert Toyokazu Troxell’s Teapot employs many motifs indicative of Japanese culture and his own upbringing by his mother, a geisha, prior to moving to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to be nearer to his father, a sergeant in the United States Army. The image of a geisha on the face of the pot was impressed into the soft clay slab by means of a carved woodblock used to make Ukiyo-e prints, while the polka dot patterning on the back was also impressed, but with a linoleum roller stamp. The handle of the teapot emulates the Japanese Torii gate, a liminal boundary between shrines and the outside world. Diagonal sticks strategically placed near the geisha impression represent Kanzashi, or hair decoration, worn by women. Teapot rests on a base similar to elevated Geta sandals, worn to protect kimono from mud and snow. The style of Geta depended on one’s social class, especially in differentiating geisha apprentices from high-class Oiran courtesans.
Collections
Additional Details
Unknown artist, Japanese
Date: c. 1877
Medium: Album with lacquered board cover containing fifty albumen photographs with hand coloring
Object number: 1992.27
Thomas Nast
Date: published September 30, 1876
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.340
Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka
Date: 2021
Medium: Sumi paintings on washi, linocut on washi, rice bags, indigo, kakishibu, and gyotaku on washi, konnyaku, and handmade deckle box gampi paper
Object number: 2024.15
Date: 625-600 B.C.E.
Medium: Reduction-fired earthenware
Object number: 1929.4
Date: 550-525 B.C.E.
Medium: Reduction-fired earthenware
Object number: 1929.7