The name Jomon (literally “cord pattern”) is given to the period from about 10,500 to 400 BC in Japan, and derives from the cord-impressions found on the earthenware pottery produced throughout this long period. Jomon potters hand-built their wares using the coil method, and they decorated the surface by pressing strands of knotted cord against the wet clay to give a distinctive texture to the surface. For thousands of years the people of the Jomon culture produced simple cooking vessels using this technique for decoration, but around 2500 BC, the pottery underwent a startling change in style. The Johnson Museum vessel belongs to this period, generally referred to as Middle Jomon.

The flattened bottom of this vessel suggests its use as a storage container, with a columnar lower part joined to a dramatic, wide-flaring mouth that gives a sense of expansive freedom to the form of the vessel. Cord impressions continue to be used for texturing the body, but now clay strips are applied in a zigzag manner around the neck and along the rim. The clay strips decorating the neck meet as pendants at four points. The two handles at the rim are strong sculptural forms in the shape of trefoils with three perforated loops.