Dish, from a set of ten with original box

Object Details

• Description

  The dish was thrown on a potter's kickwheel and then shaped over a bisque-fired clay mold. The footrim was then trimmed. The molded ten-lobed rim is edged with iron brown and coated with green (celadon) glaze, while the interior is painted in cobalt pigment with a design of iris blooming by a stream, under a colorless transparent glaze.

  Overglaze enamels are used to outline the iris and wave pattern with gold and to render an auspicious design around the celadon rim of the crane and hairy-tailed tortoise (paired symbols of longevity) and pine and bamboo.

• Label

  Wooden boxes were used to store ceramics and other precious objects. Inscriptions outside the boxes identified the contents. Often, additional inscriptions inside the box lid or on the base recorded the history of ownership or other details. This box is labeled to contain "a set of ten sashimi dishes" that belonged to the Kashiwaya, probably a fine restaurant or inn, as of 1755, when the box was inscribed and dated. The prized delicacy, known as sashimi-precisely cut raw filets of seasonal fish, with a dipping sauce-flourished chiefly as a specialty of professional chefs. The blue design of irises on these dishes, showing faintly through the thin slices of translucent fish, would have created a cooling visual effect especially appreciated in early summer.

• Provenance

  From 1950s – 1993

  Private collection, purchased in Japan in the 1950s. [1]

  From 1993

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of a private collector. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] According to the donor, object was purchased in Japan in the 1950s.

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

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Dinner for Five: Japanese Serving Dishes for Elegant Meals (March 4 to October 21, 2001)

  Japanese Art (April 13 to November 21, 1995)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Anonymous

• Origin

  Higuchi or Kakiemon kiln, Nangawara, Arita, Saga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of anonymous friends of Harold P. Stern

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Henry, Province

• Place

  Kakiemon kiln, Nangawara, Japan, Saga prefecture, Higuchi, Arita

• Topic

  Water, Art, Ceramics, Rivers, Crane, Iris, Cobalt pigment, Porcelain, Arita ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Enamel and enameling, Tortoise, Bamboo

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)