An exquisite and very rare Arita porcelain dish in the form of Mount Fuji, finely enamelled in the Kakiemon style with a view likely of Matsushima Bay showcasing delicate pine and maple groves to the foreground, scattered momiji leaves, and two sailing ships on the horizon returning to the shore

Arita kiln, Uchiyama district, Kakiemon type, Hizen province, Japan

Edo period, Enpō era (1673-1681) - Genroku era (1688-1704)

circa 1670-90

MEASUREMENTS

16.6cm wide; 9.7cm long; 2.6cm high

CONDITION

In superb original condition.

DESCRIPTION

An exquisite late 17th-century Arita porcelain dish, beautifully molded as the iconic silhouette of Mount Fuji, and executed during the golden age of Arita porcelain. This piece perfectly melds ingenious sculptural form with the poetic, painterly elegance of the Kakiemon style.

The sculptural multi-peaked mountainous profile finely decorated with brilliant overglaze enamels, showcasing a minimalist, lyrical landscape. Vibrant iron-red, brilliant cobalt blue, and translucent green and yellow pigments compose a scene of stylized pine trees, autumn foliage, and distant ships, likely of Matsushima Bay, one of Japan's three celebrated locations of natural beauty. According to Oliver Impey "a highly stylized design of pine-covered islands and boats at sea....almost certainly represents the scenery of Matsushima Bay" a view also recorded on the famous circular lobed Kakiemon dish in the Collection of the Gardiner Museum (Toronto, Canada) G.10.3.31.

The elegant use of empty space lends the landscape a sense of infinite, atmospheric depth.

The reverse features a stout, unglazed mountain-form footrim revealing a smooth, highly-levigated white body. The footrim is meticulously wrapped in a continuous, hand-painted iron-red sayagata (key-fret) geometric border.