Title
Dish
Creator
Made in Arita, Japan
Date
about 1650
Label
Dish
Made in Arita, Japan, about 1650
Made of Hard-Paste Porcelain
Museum Purchase with Funds Provided by W. Groke Mickey
2019.14.1
A pine tree, bamboo and flowering plum tree, a grouping known in Japan as shochikubai, or the “three friends of winter,” decorates this dish.
As with most plants in Asian culture, they are symbolic. Pine, because it is evergreen and lives to an old age, symbolizes strength and longevity. Bamboo, which is bendable but strong, symbolizes resiliency. Flowering plum blooms early in the spring and symbolizes purity and renewal.
Japanese potters began painting on porcelain with colorful, overglaze enamels in the mid-1640s. The intense, dark palette and spontaneous, bold style of decoration on this piece is known as ko-Kutani, or “old Kutani” ware.
This object is on display in the Watson Galleries.
Made in Arita, Japan, about 1650
Made of Hard-Paste Porcelain
Museum Purchase with Funds Provided by W. Groke Mickey
2019.14.1
A pine tree, bamboo and flowering plum tree, a grouping known in Japan as shochikubai, or the “three friends of winter,” decorates this dish.
As with most plants in Asian culture, they are symbolic. Pine, because it is evergreen and lives to an old age, symbolizes strength and longevity. Bamboo, which is bendable but strong, symbolizes resiliency. Flowering plum blooms early in the spring and symbolizes purity and renewal.
Japanese potters began painting on porcelain with colorful, overglaze enamels in the mid-1640s. The intense, dark palette and spontaneous, bold style of decoration on this piece is known as ko-Kutani, or “old Kutani” ware.
This object is on display in the Watson Galleries.
Credit Line
Museum Purchase with Funds Provided by W. Groke Mickey
Citation
Made in Arita, Japan, “Dish,” Museums at Washington and Lee University: Online Exhibits, accessed May 17, 2024, https://exhibits-museums.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/296.