Nabeshima ware

Seventeenth century, Edo Period

Diameter, 31.5 cm.

Nabeshima ware, unmatched in Japan for its delicacy, was produced with official support at Okochi in the Nabeshima fief (modern-day Saga Prefecture, Kyushu). This plate has long been famous as one of the larger surviving pieces of Nabeshima ware.

A very deep plate with a high foot, it is finished with a transparent glaze. The peach motif is painted in polychrome overglaze enamels atop the underglaze cobalt blue under painting. Both the design and coloring originated in the polychrome “good-fortune” designs of Ch’ing-dynasty China, but this rendering displays the high level of the Nabeshima technique. Three underglaze blue peony motifs are spaced around the outside of this deep plate, and an embellished interlocking-circle motif decorates the high foot.