Dish thumbnail 1
Dish thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 145

Dish

1650-1660 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Porcelain manufacture began in Japan during the first decades of the seventeenth century, with production centred around the town of Arita, on the western island of Kyushu. Arita porcelain is of exceptional quality. It is made from crushed volcanic rock combined with a small proportion of china clay and fired in multi-chambered climbing kilns. The earliest wares made in Arita were mainly blue-and-white, with enamelled wares appearing from around 1640.

This boldly decorated dish is an example of so-called Kutani ware, a type of enamelled porcelain made at Arita in the mid-seventeenth century. While no two examples of Kutani ware are exactly the same, this particular piece belongs to what is known as the 'Green Kutani' ('Ao-Kutani' in Japanese) group. The design of rocks, pines and bamboo is spontaneously sketched in black and coloured with intense jewel-like shades of yellow, green and aubergine purple.

The term Kutani is misleading, for it is the name of a village in Ishikawa Prefecture, an area formerly ruled by the Maeda family of feudal lords, hundreds of kilometres away from Arita on the main island of Honshu. Ceramics were made there for a short period during the seventeenth century, but it was only in the nineteenth century, which saw a revival of the Kutani style there, that it became an important centre of ceramic production. While it is now accepted that seventeenth-century Kutani wares were probably commissioned by the Maeda family, hence the name by which they are known, examples have also been excavated on the Indonesian island of Java, apparently exported there by the Dutch East India Company and Chinese merchants trading out of Nagasaki.

According to the Japanese porcelain specialist, Professor Koji Ohashi (visit to the V&A on 06/12/2012), this dish dates to the 1650s, prior to the phase when enamels were applied more lavishly to the reverse of dishes. The porcelain blank with its greyish tinge is likely to have been fired at the Arita kiln Yambeta no. 2. The sandy residues on the bottom of the footring indicate that it was raw-glazed. Scarring on the rim to a small section of the purple glaze (at roughly ten o'clock) is the outcome of the way in which the dish would have been stacked vertically or near vertically in the muffle kiln used to fuse the enamel colours. Shards not dissimilar to this dish have been identified at consumer excavation sites in Southeast Asia.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain painted with overglaze enamels
Brief description
Cer, Japan, Kutani; dish, porcelain with overglaze enamel; features rocks, a fir tree and bamboo; Arita Kilns (Kutani type), 1650-1660
Physical description
Deep circular dish with central design of trees, rocks and bamboo in purple and green against a rich yellow ground covered in small dappled circles painted in black; this surrounded by a narrow green patterned border and wide purple rim decorated with wave motifs; the exterior painted with an overall floral design
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 41.9cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
Fuku (On base)
Translation
Happiness
Object history
Purchased from the Japanese Commissioners for the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, accessioned in 1877. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.
Association
Summary
Porcelain manufacture began in Japan during the first decades of the seventeenth century, with production centred around the town of Arita, on the western island of Kyushu. Arita porcelain is of exceptional quality. It is made from crushed volcanic rock combined with a small proportion of china clay and fired in multi-chambered climbing kilns. The earliest wares made in Arita were mainly blue-and-white, with enamelled wares appearing from around 1640.

This boldly decorated dish is an example of so-called Kutani ware, a type of enamelled porcelain made at Arita in the mid-seventeenth century. While no two examples of Kutani ware are exactly the same, this particular piece belongs to what is known as the 'Green Kutani' ('Ao-Kutani' in Japanese) group. The design of rocks, pines and bamboo is spontaneously sketched in black and coloured with intense jewel-like shades of yellow, green and aubergine purple.

The term Kutani is misleading, for it is the name of a village in Ishikawa Prefecture, an area formerly ruled by the Maeda family of feudal lords, hundreds of kilometres away from Arita on the main island of Honshu. Ceramics were made there for a short period during the seventeenth century, but it was only in the nineteenth century, which saw a revival of the Kutani style there, that it became an important centre of ceramic production. While it is now accepted that seventeenth-century Kutani wares were probably commissioned by the Maeda family, hence the name by which they are known, examples have also been excavated on the Indonesian island of Java, apparently exported there by the Dutch East India Company and Chinese merchants trading out of Nagasaki.

According to the Japanese porcelain specialist, Professor Koji Ohashi (visit to the V&A on 06/12/2012), this dish dates to the 1650s, prior to the phase when enamels were applied more lavishly to the reverse of dishes. The porcelain blank with its greyish tinge is likely to have been fired at the Arita kiln Yambeta no. 2. The sandy residues on the bottom of the footring indicate that it was raw-glazed. Scarring on the rim to a small section of the purple glaze (at roughly ten o'clock) is the outcome of the way in which the dish would have been stacked vertically or near vertically in the muffle kiln used to fuse the enamel colours. Shards not dissimilar to this dish have been identified at consumer excavation sites in Southeast Asia.
Bibliographic references
  • Augustus Wollaston Franks and M. Shioda, Japanese Pottery. [London]: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1880. South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks; 18. Catalogue number 151
  • Liefkes, Reino and Hilary Young (eds.) Masterpieces of World Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publishing, 2008, pp. 76.
Collection
Accession number
309-1877

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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