Known as “neko-men jizo” or “jizo with a cat face,” this particular type of stone welcoming cat has a long history which can be traced to an early legend involving a Tokyo area temple called Jisho-in. According to documents held at the temple, sometime during the mid-16th century there was an intense fight between two individuals: Toshima and Ota. While fighting, Ota became disoriented and stumbled upon a black cat which led him to the temple where he could recuperate. Upon regaining his strength, Ota was able to defeat Toshima. In gratitude for the little black cat which saved his life, Ota ordered that a stone jizo (a Buddhist saint) be fashioned in the shape of a cat. (A similar example can be found in Figure 4 of “Maneki Neko: Feline Fact and Fiction” by noted authority Alan Pate, the cover story in DARUMA 11.)

Originally the term maneki neko referred to a cat’s supposed ability to charm and bewitch passersby. This connotation gave way to an auspicious interpretation, and today the maneki neko symbolizes a merchant’s success in attracting customers as well as a householder’s financial good fortune. Such cats sit upright, with one paw lifted in a welcoming gesture to “beckon in” customers or good fortune. These delightful creatures exhibit a raw individuality that makes them completely unpredictable. The older maneki neko possess an innocent charm and beauty that is the hallmark of Japanese folk art. It is exceedingly rare to find them executed in stone.

Produced mainly at the Seto kilns in Aichi Prefecture, oil plates were special flat plates with a unique perpendicular 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.

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. Some, such as this plate, were also further decorated with the copper green Oribe glaze. This type of oil plate is known as a “katagake” (“shoulder glazing”), with the thick green glaze on the top part of the plate and the brown tetsu-e pictures on the bottom. Andon plates with green Oribe glaze were produced mainly in Akatsu Village, which made pottery for and was protected by the Owari clan.

The fascination of aburazara for the collectors of Japanese folk art lies in their 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 oil plates, including Figure 6, which is similar in style to this one.

The upper tray held finely sifted wood ash, tamped flat and smooth, over which the wooden grid template was placed. A furrow was cut into the ash in the shape of the grid lines and then filled with powdered incense which burned at a uniform rate. Once the incense was placed into the continuous track, the grid was removed and the incense ignited. The latticework cover was then put in place to prevent a breeze from accelerating the rate of combustion of the burning incense. The incense would burn continuously for hours as the lighted edge made its way around the grid design. Continual offerings of incense using a jokoban were often found in Japanese Buddhist temples during religious rites. Because long periods of time could be measured by the amount of incense burned, this type of Japanese incense clock was also used in community life as well as in the temples. (See Figure 115 in “The Trail of Time: Time Measurement with Incense in East Asia” by Silvio Bedini.) Examples of old kobandokei show burn scars, overall evidence of handling and the presence of ash or powdered incense. Relatively few examples of antique incense clocks have survived.