Page 83 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Dish with radish and waues design Dish with/ailing snowflakes design Dish with tassel design
c. 1680-16905 c. 16905 c. i68os
Nabeshima ware Nabeshima ware Nabeshima ware
Porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue Porcelain with celadon glaze and Porcelain with overglaze
and overglaze enamels underglaze cobalt blue polychrome enamels
Diameter 20.4 (8Vs) Diameter 20.2 (8) Diameter 20.2 (8)
Imaemon Museum of Ceramic Imaemon Museum of Ceramic Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo
Antiques, Saga Antiques, Saga
Illustrated page 65
Illustrated page 65 Illustrated page 65
• Four tassels and cords swirling
82 • A good number of Nabeshima • This celadon and underglaze cobalt around the interior rim of this dish
dishes display vegetable motifs, but blue dish is an example of domestic compose the original design. The cen-
few are as bold in design as this one. Japanese taste. It also represents the ter of the dish is left white, except
It achieves a perfect balance between standard colors used in classic Nabe- where two tassels, one blue and one
the underglaze and overglaze color- shima ware. Five of the twelve snow- orange red, encroach on the space. The
ants, the molded edges of the radish flakes here are partly filled with a strength of Nabeshima design lies in
leaves, and the refined disappearing soft cobalt blue circle. The rest are left the ability of artisans to transform
ink technique used to define the white. All have been outlined with mundane objects into exciting patterns.
waves in the background. underglaze cobalt blue. With the This dish was produced at the official
celadon glaze in the background, the
This type of design was popular in Okawachi domain kilns, where ela-
design is a study in negative and posi-
other media at the time, notably in tive values — the space where the borate processes were followed to
textiles. But the motif predates the snowflakes are not placed is of equal protect the secret recipe for overglaze
Edo period, occurring, for example, on enameling. Underglaze decoration
the thirteenth-century Kamakura importance to where they are. was applied after the porcelain was
handscroll Portraits of Courtiers (Agency A similarly dated Koimari dish also dried but before the main firing in a
for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo), where one makes use of the snowflake pattern climbing kiln at approximately 1,320°
courtier's robe is embellished with a (cat. 16). Indeed the motif, which was centigrade. Overglaze enamels were
radish design. The difference is in popular in Edo textiles and textile applied after firing, at which point the
the method of depiction. The radish pattern books, was used at the Hizen piece would be refired in a separate
here wraps flamboyantly around kilns in Arita beginning in the 16505. "muffle" kiln at much lower tempera-
the rim of the dish to form a circle. A line in a poem (number 22) from tures depending on the color of the
the classic Anthology of Ancient and enamel. According to a document in
The seven-sun size of this dish, which Modern Poetry (Kofeinshu) seems partic- the Taku branch of the Nabeshima
would have been used by daimyo dur- ularly apt for this dish: "to see snow family, overglaze enamel had to be
ing ordinary meals for serving food as flowers descending from the sky." controlled and fired by specialists in
related to the painted design, was one
Arita who were licensed and overseen
of the most popular at the Nabeshima The exteriors of Nabeshima plates, by the Saga domain. Thus overglaze
kilns. The shape here echoes the standardized for the most part after enamels were brought from Arita to
curves in the leaves of the radish. The the Genroku era, were decorated Okawachi, where they were applied.
leaves themselves are blue, green, and in underglaze cobalt blue, most of
yellow, the last perhaps referring to them with a cash and ribbon design Then the pieces were carefully packed
with
and transported
a guard unit
an older dying section of a leaf. The (linked circles, referring to Chinese back to Arita to be fired, and returned
exterior of the dish has a floral scroll, coins tied with a ribbon), and a to Okawachi under guard after firing.
and a comb pattern in underglaze comb design circled the outside of
cobalt blue encircles the footring. As the footring. This piece has the comb The overall shape of a Nabeshima
with all Nabeshima official ware, there pattern around the footring, but its dish, with its relatively high footring,
is no character or written mark inside floral scroll is of a type that predates was based on wooden and lacquer
the footring. NCR the cash motif. The rim of the dish prototypes, which help to account for
has an unusual molded ridge. NCR the exceptionally refined form that
is not usually seen in Hizen ceramic
repertoire. NCR