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Plate with Design of Fans

ca. 1650
Not on view
This handsome high-footed dish is a characteristic product of the nineteenth-century revival of Ko Kutani porcelain. The body is dense and very heavy, and it is crudely and boldly produced. The design is strongly drawn in the well and somewhat cursorily in the back. If there is a glaze under the coarse dark enamels, it is very thin and concealed by the overall decoration. The design of scattered fans that boldly defies the confines of the round plate is characteristic of these celebrated, if problematic, wares.
Controversy surrounds the definition of wares termed Ko Kutani (Old Kutani). The best known are large plates that feature bold, decorative designs rendered in a limited palette of blue, green, yellow, and aubergine, with touches of red. The pigments are so thickly applied that they often form deep pools of glossy color. It is now thought that Ko Kutani porcelain was made at the Hizen kilns on Kyushu, rather than at the Kutani kilns in northwestern Japan. After the 1660s, this ware was superceded by the more delicate wares of Kakiemon and Nabeshima.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Plate with Design of Fans
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: ca. 1650
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Porcelain with overglaze enamels (Hizen ware, Ko Kutani style)
  • Dimensions: Diam. 8 5/8 in. (21.9 cm); H. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Diam. (foot) 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics
  • Credit Line: Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection, Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 2000
  • Object Number: 2002.447.101
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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Dish with Three Jars, Porcelain with underglaze blue and overglaze polychrome enamels (Hizen ware, Nabeshima type), Japan
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Hexagonal Jar (Rokkaku-tsubo) with Paulownia and Geometric Design, Stoneware with polychrome overglaze enamels and gold (Ko-Kiyomizu ware), Japan
Hexagonal Jar (Rokkaku-tsubo) with Paulownia and Geometric Design
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Dish Depicting Lady with a Parasol, Cornelis Pronk Dutch, Porcelain painted with cobalt blue under and colored enamels over transparent glaze (Hizen ware; Imari type), Japan
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