Frederick and Kazuko Harris Library Collection

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The Frederick and Kazuko Harris Library Collection is composed of artwork created and collected by Frederick Harris (FH) along with items from his art studio. The digitized collection represents art collected and created over the span of forty years. A complete finding aid is online at the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.

The collection has been organized into two series: Collected Works and Created Works. Collected Works includes mostly porcelain, stoneware, and earthenware vessels; statuettes and figurines from many countries throughout Asia; prints; and inksticks. Created Works includes all of FH's sketchbooks, and a large number of his finished sumi-e and watercolor paintings. Some items from the collection are not shown online due to copyright.

Collected Works includes three subseries: Objects, Prints and Sketchbooks, and Scrolls. Objects include ceramics mostly from Japan and China, utensils in other media, figurines and sculptures from throughout Asia, water puppets, and inksticks. The different items in ceramics include plates, bottles, jugs, teabowls (or chawan,) lidded jars, ewers, vases, teacups, and guinomi (Japanese tea or sake cup). Ceramic types are porcelain, stoneware, and earthenware. Figurines and sculpture include representation of deities, the Buddha, monks, priests, animals, and some that may be from Japanese Doll Festival displays. Prints and Sketchbooks includes a set of ukiyo-e prints by Yasuji Inoue, and a set of prints by an unknown artist. The collected sketchbooks have not yet been digitized. Scrolls includes Japanese hanging scrolls.

Created Works includes two subseries: Paintings and Sketchbooks. FH worked primarily in sumi-e and watercolor. Paintings by FH are on Japanese paper. Most have been framed. The frames are not easily removed, and framed paintings have been measured only in the frame.  Unframed paintings have been attached to a paper backing. Unframed painting measurements do not include the paper backing. Paintings are signed and stamped by FH unless otherwise noted. The subject matter includes temples and other structures, mountains, landscapes, towns and villages, boats on water, and figures. Sketchbooks include sketchbooks and portfolios of sketches created by FH while in Japan and during his travels around the world. Places other than Japan that are often represented include Hawaii and California, United States; Malaysia; Việt Nam; Italy; and England. Subject matter includes landscapes, seascapes, genre scenes in towns and cities, figures and portraits, and architecture. FH frequently noted the place and date of the sketch in a corner of the page. Sometimes he would begin using a sketchbook years after the last time it was used. In a few places, he has transposed the numbers in the year.  FH left space on his sketches at temples so that the residing priests could apply the temple's stamp as proof of his visit. Many of the sketchbooks are only partially filled.

When scanning the sketchbooks, all pages were scanned, including the front and back covers, fly pages, and blank pages found in-between or on the back of sketched pages. The only pages not scanned were all blank pages found past the last used page.