Dish with design of conch trumpet

Object Details

• Description

  Dish, large; four spur-marks on base.

  Clay: white porcelain.

  Glaze: clear porcelain glaze; slight "orange skin" texture.

  Decoration: painted in underglaze cobalt blue. Inside: large conch surrounded by auspicious symbols, noshi, flaming pearls (hoshu), cord. Outside: sutra scrolls on stands and hoshu.

• Label

  Boldly centered on the dish is a large conch shell, fitted with a metal mouthpiece for use as a horn in the religious rituals of the wandering ascetics or yamabushi. Surrounding the conch-shell horn are small flaming jewels and two large noshi, clusters of dried abalone strips that were attached by tradition to gifts. Large porcelain dishes were in popular demand in the late Edo period for use in serving food to large gatherings at annual village festivals and Buddhist ceremonies.

• Provenance

  To ?

  Hirano Kosuke, Odawara, Japan. [1]

  To 1977

  Private collection, McLean, Virginia. [2]

  From 1977

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of a private collector, McLean, Virginia. [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record.

  [2] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920 file, Collections Management Office.

  [3] The object was donated to the Freer Study Collection on November 1977 and was transferred to the Permanent Collection on March 3, 1978. See original copy of statement dated November 28, 1977, and letter dated Dec 5, 1977, copies in the object file, Collections Management Office. Also see note 2.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Summer Whites: Japanese Porcelain (July 1, 1983 to March 15, 1984)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Anonymous

  Mr. and Mrs. Province Henry

• Origin

  Arita, Saga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harold P. Stern

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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  collections.si.edu

• Date

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• Name

  Kosuke, Hirano, Henry, Province

• Place

  Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita

• Topic

  Cobalt pigment, Porcelain, Art, Arita ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Sutra, Ceramics, Marine shell trumpet

• Culture

  Buddhists, Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)