Arita ware dish with design of flowers in a basket, Kakiemon kiln

Dish with ten-lobed rim.
Clay: white porcelain.
Glaze: transparent.
Decoration: Paulownia and diaper pattern painted in underglaze blue, overglaze enamel colors and gold; waves and cherry blossoms outside. Daikon in blue on base.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1690-1720
Medium
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under colorless glaze, enamels over glaze
Style
Arita ware, Kakiemon workshop
Dimensions
H x W: 5.7 x 34.3 cm (2 1/4 x 13 1/2 in)
Geography
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, Kakiemon kiln, Nangawara
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1962.15
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Dish

Keywords
Arita ware, cherry blossom, Edo period (1615 - 1868), flower, Japan, porcelain
Provenance

Possibly in Warwick Castle, Warwick, England [1]

To 1962
William W. Winkworth, London. [2]

From 1962
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from William W. Winkworth, London. [3]

Notes:

[1] According to a summer 1973 conversation between J.A. Pope and Mr. Winkworth, the dish may have been in a collection in the Warwick Castle. In August 2009, Ohashi Koji, Kyushu Ceramic Museum, noted that dishes of this type are commonly found in England. See Curatorial Remarks 5 and 16 in the object record

[2] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920 file, Collections Management Office.

[3] See note 2.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

William W. Winkworth

Description

Dish with ten-lobed rim.
Clay: white porcelain.
Glaze: transparent.
Decoration: Paulownia and diaper pattern painted in underglaze blue, overglaze enamel colors and gold; waves and cherry blossoms outside. Daikon in blue on base.

Marking(s)

Daikon in blue on base.

Label

The several extant examples of large molded dishes with this design have been called Kakiemon ware, yet the red is softer than the typical Kakiemon red, and the opulent decoration has much in common with Nabeshima ware.  Alternatively, dishes of this type used to be known as Shibuemon ware, a name said to refer to a person working in the Kakiemon workshop who died in 1716 or 1735, according to dubious documents in the Kakiemon family papers. At first the design of crest-like paulownia blossoms, scattered over a brocade-like lattice, seems wholly artificial, yet the extending lines of the lattice hark back to a naturalistic motif, found on other Arita wares, of blossoms within an open-weave bamboo basket. 


Published References
  • Zaigai Nihon no Shiho [Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections]. 10 vols., Tokyo, 1979 - 1980. vol. 9: pl. 62.
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 65.
  • Mayuyama Junkichi. Japanese Art in the West. Tokyo. pl. 389.
  • Roger Soame Jenyns. Japanese Porcelain. London. fig. 43c.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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