The shochikubai is a widespread decorative and symbolic motif made up of the pine, plum blossom and bamboo. Sometimes referred to as the Three Elements of Happiness or the Three Friends of Winter, they are symbolic of staying true to high ideals of scholarship, strength and beauty in time of hardship.

Folk pottery consists of various kinds of domestic wares which possess a natural dignity that stems from the combination of the materials used to make and fire the pottery, the craftsman’s technical skill, and the use to which such pottery is put. Folk-craft products or “mingei,” of which this plate is representative, are objects used by common people. These commonplace, functional artifacts are endowed with a beauty directly connected with their utility – a beauty that is humble, unassuming and never pretentious.

CONDITION is excellent for this type of folk ceramic dish. Due to their long and frequent use, old Seto pottery dishes typically show signs of wear and are seldom found without some degree of roughage or damage. There are only insignificant old rim chips and two very old age cracks on this one. This somewhat rough appearance only adds to the plate’s appeal. The clay is darkened by use and age, and it has a wonderful original patina. The six small impressions around the center on the front surface are the result of small clay pellets used to separate the stacked plates when they were being fired.

In the mid to late Edo period, horse-eye plates were one of the standard utilitarian products produced by the Seto kilns. Used for serving food, they appeared in restaurants and inns along the Tokaido Road from Kyoto to Edo, as well as in ordinary homes. Horse-eye plates are the quintessential example of Japanese mingei pottery, and no major Japanese folk art collection would be considered complete without one. They are bold, fresh, powerful and contemporary in feeling.

It is quite rare to find uma-no-me zara in such a large size. See Photo Enlargement 11 to visualize the relative size differential. A more typical horse-eye plate (on the left) and one of similar size to this one (on the right) are illustrated together in Figure 59 in “Quiet Beauty” by Robert Moes which chronicles fifty centuries of Japanese folk ceramics from the world famous Jeffrey Montgomery Collection. The Montgomery Collection is widely considered to be the most important trove of Japanese folk art outside of Japan.

CONDITION is excellent for this type of folk ceramic dish. Due to their long and frequent use, horse-eye plates typically show signs of wear, yet there are only insignificant old rim chips on this one. The unglazed spots in the center ring are marks made by small ceramic points that separated the many plates that were stacked in the kiln during the firing process. This somewhat rough appearance only adds to the plate’s appeal. This uma-no-me zara is darkened by use and age, and it has a wonderful original patina.

Most andon plates feature the design known as “tetsu-e” (“iron pictures”), the freestyle images painted in iron-oxide pigments directly onto the clay, frequently of sparse landscapes or subjects from nature. Artisans drew underlaze pictures directly on the clay with iron pigments made from an iron oxide. Then they poured transparent glaze over the pictures. This plate is an example of Oribe glaze all over the tetsu-e instead of Oribe glazing only on part of the plate, such as a shoulder.

Produced mainly at the Seto kilns in Aichi Prefecture, oil dishes were special circular flat plates with a unique raised perpendicular outer edge. They were placed on the lower level of the andon lantern where they were used to catch oil drippings and soot from the burnt wick or oil feeder above. These plates were in use from the mid-seventeenth century, when andon were first used indoors, until the early 1900’s, when the use of oil lamps and electric lights became widespread.

The fascination of aburazara for the collectors of Japanese folk art lies in their bold painted motifs. Their simple designs always possessed a spontaneous vitality, and the decoration on this plate is large in scale and freely executed. Considered a quintessential example of Japanese ceramic folk art, Seto oil plates are represented in most major collections of mingei or Japanese folk ceramics. See “Andon (Lantern) Plates” by Yamazaki Masumi, the cover article in DARUMA 42 for many wonderful examples of these early oil plates, including Figures 21 and 22, which are similar in style to this one.

CONDITION is quite good for such an early andon plate. There are the fairly typical and expected areas of glaze loss on the rim of the plate and a stable old hairline crack, which are totally consistent with age and extensive usage for a plate of this nature. Very few aburazara survive in perfect condition because they were seen as ordinary everyday utilitarian wares which would ultimately be discarded. Such rough spots actually give these old oil plates more character, enhancing their folk art essence.

The name of this type of Mino ware derives from the textured pattern rouletted onto the clear-glazed portion of its surface, which reminded Japanese of the small, lacquered-steel horizontal scales that were laced together to form a suit of armor. Wooden roulettes were rolled horizontally over the damp form to produce these textures on the lower body of this bottle. Gourd-shaped sake bottles as well as small cups with this distinctive “armor” texture have been excavated from the kiln sites in the former Hirano Village in Mino and from kilns within the former Seto Village in Seto. The “armor” format was one of numerous novelties developed at late Edo-period kilns competing for the popular market.

Double gourd sake bottles like this one are found in several important private and museum collections of Japanese folk ceramics. The Morse collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, includes three such pieces in graduated sizes (Morse 1901: nos. 4291-93), and there is one in the Japanese Collections at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. (See Figure 91 in “Seto and Mino Ceramics” by Louise Allison Cort.) A similar tokkuri is illustrated in Figure 61 in “Quiet Beauty” by Robert Moes which chronicles fifty centuries of Japanese folk ceramics from the world famous Montgomery Collection. The Montgomery Collection is widely considered to be the most important trove of Japanese folk art outside of Japan.

CONDITION is excellent, with no chips, cracks or restoration. There are some normal minor kiln flaws which are usually seen on old folk ceramics.

Kutani (“nine valleys”) is a small village in Kaga Province on the northwest coast of the main island of Japan with a long history of porcelain production. In 1823 the Yoshidaya Kilns were established at the site of an earlier Kutani kiln which had long since ceased production. Wares produced at this kiln were patterned after the Old Kutani wares and are known as Revival Kutani (“Saiko Kutani”) or as Yoshidaya wares (“Yoshidaya Yaki”). Many pieces produced by this kiln are very well potted with beautiful coloring, clearly showing a Chinese influence.

Always an important symbol of strength and courage in Chinese art, the tiger was considered supreme among the land beasts and was credited with the ability to fend off demons and ill fortune. In Japan, where the tiger (“tora”) was not indigenous, early beliefs regarding the animal followed the mold of China. Because tigers were only seen occasionally in traveling menageries in Japan, their representation in Japanese art was often less than realistic. Whatever the inspiration behind this artistic treatment of tigers, pre-modern Japanese artists generally depicted them in a highly stylized manner. This resulted in paintings and ceramics which portrayed an entire race of animals with somewhat unusual or exaggerated features, appearing more cat-like or even shishi-like than the potentially ferocious beasts they are.

For centuries, Bizen has been highly regarded for its dark red-brown stoneware made from iron-rich clay with a natural ash glaze. Bizen pottery is unglazed but fired at such a high a temperature that a natural glaze is formed on the surface. Also upon firing, wood ash flies up in the kiln and is deposited randomly on the pottery, giving each piece its own individuality and vitality. “Okimono” is the generic name for Japanese decorative objects which have no utilitarian function but are merely created to please the eye. They are usually of ceramic or metal, and most frequently represent animals, birds or human figures. (See “Bizen Okimono” by Robert L. Yellin in DARUMA 31.) It is quite rare to find Bizen ware figures of tigers.

Shino ware (“shino yaki”) is a type of Japanese pottery most identifiable for its thick milky-white glazes, red scorch marks and the texture of small holes. Originally developed in the late 16th century and produced in kilns in the Seto and Mino areas of Gifu Prefecture, Shino yaki was Japan’s first high-fired white-glazed pottery. The glaze, composed primarily of ground local feldspar and ash, produced a satiny white color. Mino ceramic te-aburi in rabbit form are found in important private and museum collections of Japanese folk ceramics, including the Morse collection in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, and in the Jeffrey Montgomery Collection, widely considered to be the most important trove of Japanese folk art outside of Japan.

A te-aburi is a personal-size hand warmer, smaller than a conventional hibachi. The lower part of the warmer was filled with ash on which a few small, glowing pieces of charcoal were placed, thus heating the surrounding pottery walls. During the Meiji period, in homes where such luxuries could be afforded, custom demanded that whenever a visitor arrived in winter, the first act of hospitality would be to set a small personal warmer next to the guest to provide comfort in an otherwise unheated reception room. Te-aburi were made to be used by one of two persons at most. Even when unheated, this particular brazier projects a feeling of warmth because the maker created it in the form of a plump rabbit.

The rabbit or hare (“usagi”) is one of the twelve zodiac animals. Prior to modern times, it was fashionable in Japan to display or use some household object depicting the zodiac animal for the current year as a kind of talisman to ward off evil spirits and invite good fortune. When the Japanese look at the full moon, they see the figure of a rabbit rather than the face of the West’s “man in the moon.” According to Chinese Taoist legend, this is a white rabbit pounding out the elixir of immortality with a mortar and pestle.

Oribe ware, a folk pottery produced in kilns located in Mino and Seto, is particularly Japanese in taste and was never made for export. Its bold and spontaneous designs and contours were generally asymmetrically executed in styles that were distinct, imaginative and vigorous. Oribe pottery derives its name from Furuta Oribe, a famous 16th century tea master. His influence over the pottery production of his day led to the development of a certain type of ware that was later named after him, nearly all relating in some way to the tea ceremony.