Large deep bowl with design of flowers and birds in overglaze enamels.
Important Cultural Property
Height 21.0cm, Bowl diameter 30.0-30.4cm, Bottom diameter 16.4cm
Tokyo National Museum
Until the end of World War II, this was the only known large deep bowl in the Kakiemon style in Japan. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1952 as a masterpiece of the Kakiemon style of overglaze enamels because of its large size, excellent overglaze enamels in both design and color tone. Later, however, superior Arita porcelain in overglaze enamels, which had been exported by the Dutch East India Company, were imported one after another, and excellent deep bowls, Figs. 7 and 93, were found. The other two pieces have exactly the same design as this deep bowl, and since they are accompanied by lids, it is clear that this deep bowl used to have a lid of the same form as Fig. 7.
The same design as in Fig. 7 is shown on the front and back of the body, but the depiction of the design is more spacious, strong, and fluid than in Fig. 7, perhaps because this deep bowl was slightly larger, or perhaps because it was made a little earlier in time.
Unlike most milky-white hand paintings, the lines of the design around the mouth, the hem of the body, and the base are not in red overglaze painting, but in underglaze painting, which is a characteristic of this type of lid. It is assumed to have been made in the Enpo period.
