A fine, rare and beautiful Arita Kakiemon style dish, enamelled with a single ho-o bird in flight near a flowering winter peony issuing from shiba-gaki banded hedges (brushwood fence) with scattered momiji leaves at the base

Arita kiln, Uchiyama district, Kakiemon style, Hizen province, Japan Edo period, Enpō (1673-1681) to Genroku era (1688-1702)

circa 1670-1690

MEASUREMENTS

21.5 cm diameter, 3 cm high

CONDITION

In very good original condition. An almost invisible hairline to the rim at 1 o'clock extending 5mm.

DESCRIPTION

A large circular Kakiemon dish with shallow curving sides, potted in Arita with a well levigated white body and raised on a wide footrim, the reverse left in the white, the face enamelled with a single ho-o bird in flight near a flowering winter peony issuing from shiba-gaki banded hedges (brushwood fence) with scattered momiji leaves at the base. Interestingly the placement of the ho-o bird in this iconic early Kakiemon pattern varies considerably from dish to dish, giving the enameler more artistic license than in later Kakiemon style patterns. While the ho-o bird would more typically be the central motif, here the large winter peony appears to take the leading role.

For a similar example of the same pattern, see John Ayers, Oliver Impey and J. V. G. Mallet et. al, Porcelain for Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe, 1650-1750 (London, 1990), p. 151, pl. 121.

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This dish was famously copied by Meissen in the early eighteenth century. For an example of the Meissen copy in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (The V&A), see accession number 26-1908.

STORAGE

With a very fine antique Japanese tomobako storage box with inscriptions on side and cover, and silk ribbon.

PROVENANCE

Various historical inscriptions on the tomobako storage box record ownership with the Sano clan.