Description

Chinese porcelain blue and white zhadou painted with a fisherman’s net design, the interior and base glazed white.

4 inches, 10.2 cm high, 4 inches, 10.2 cm diameter

Tianqi, 1621-1627.

Edo period box.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • From the collection of Dr. Masahiko Shintani M. D. (1933-2021). Dr. Shintani was a very well-known Asian art collector.
  • Illustrated by Watanabe Sanpodo in The Arts of Our Daily Lives, Kosometsuke and its Artistic Elegance, 2009, no. 11, p. 12.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 9, pp. 32/33.
  • Only one other zhadou of this period appears to be published, painted with a striped design and of similar size, illustrated by Kitaoji Rosan-jin in Kosometsuke Hyaku Hin-shu, no. 21.
    Kitaoji Rosan-jin (1883-1959) was born in the village of Kamigamo in Kyoto Prefecture. Born with a name Kitaoji Fusa-jiro, he became an eminent artist, calligrapher, ceramicist, and restaurateur in Japan during the first half of the 20th century.
    In 1921 he founded the gourmet club known in Japan as Bishoku Club.
    Sadly, the Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 destroyed most of his ceramic collection, and he began to make pottery to replace it. Fortunately, his collection had been photographed and he published his first work on the subject in the 1930’s. The two- volume edition referred to as one hundred pieces, was published in Tokyo in 1978.
  • The design of a fisherman’s net was very popular during the Tianqi reign. A dish and a small vase from the Tokyo National Museum collection are illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Colour Section, no. 143, pp. 172/3, and no. 97, pp. 134/5 respectively; a further cup in the Sekido Museum of Art, Adachi City, Tokyo, is illustrated in their catalogue of Kosometsuke, 2017, no. 14, p. 75.
  • A large blue and white deep dish dated to the mid-16th century with fish and aquatic plants on a net ground is illustrated by Regina Krahl and John Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, A Complete Catalogue II, Yuan and Ming Dynasty Porcelains, no. 849, p. 611.
  • A shard discovered at Jingdezhen No. 3 Middle School kiln site from the Tianqi/Chongzhen strata with the centre and unmarked base from a fisherman’s net dish is illustrated by Huang Qinghua in Colorful Japan – the Special Exhibition of the Ordered Porcelains at the End of Ming Dynasty from Japan, 2021, p. 119.

Condition

  • four tiny chips at the rim, retouched.
Enquire