Page 56 - Christie's The Joseph Collection of Japanese Art

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A SHOKI IMARI DISH
EDO PERIOD (EARLY-MID 17TH CENTURY)
初期伊万里染付山水文皿
江戸時代（17世紀前中期）
The shallow circular dish with narrow everted rim on a small ringfoot, decorated in
underglaze blue with a landscape depicting rocky mountains, a pavilion and trees
on a shore, geese in fight over the water before the mountains in the distance,
circumferential lines to the rim
17cm. diam
£3,000-4,000 $5,100-6,700
€3,700-4,900

In China, mountains have been regarded as very signifcant in relation to Taoism
and they were depicted as the main motif in many of the landscape designs on
Chinese porcelain. With the infuence of such designs, the mountains were also
popular in shoki Imari ware and depicted in various ways such as the closeup view,
distant view and rocky ones and, in many cases, together with other motifs of
trees, architecture or fgures. The depiction of water as horizontal lines also shows
the infuence of the porcelains of the Ming Dynasty. In this lot, the entire design
is highly stylised but shows the free, strong brushwork of early potters in Japan.
For more about the mountain motif, see Ohashi Koji, Koimari no monyo: shoki
Hizen jiki o chushin ni [Designs of Koimari: mainly from Hizen ware], (Tokyo, 1994),
p.187-192.

For a similar example, see:
(base)
Ohashi Koji, Koimari no monyo: shoki Hizen jiki o chushin ni [Designs of Koimari:
mainly from Hizen ware], (Tokyo, 1994), p.187

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