The Kutani kilns (meaning nine valleys) are located in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture on the southeast part of the Island of Honshu. The kilns has a long history of which the Ko-Kutani (old Kutani)pieces from the 17th and 18th century endeared themselves to the people of Japan by their use of bold designs or landscape depicted in the colors of green, yello, cobalt blue, aubergine and red. These colorful presentations added joy and brilliance to their every day lives. The surviving older Ko-Kutani pieces can only be seen only in Japanese collections in the Asian Art Museums in the US. Sometime in the early 19th century around 1807, several potters revived the ceramic production in the Kutani kilns and they created five different styles, and this Kutani bowl presented here is in the Yoshidara style of Ko Kutani. Four of the five bold glazes covered the entire surface, green and cobalt blue, but it is the chrome yellow that predominates. The floral designs hark back to the 16th and 17th century designs with the bold flowers in blue and gray and large areas of green leaves, and a small blue green butterfly buzzing above. Tiny circles in black dot all over the yellow ground. The underside is glazed in the typical green Kutani glaze and decorated with a repeat floral scroll in black glaze. A distinctive mark of a single character is painted inside the foot ring. This "FUKU" mark, meaning luck, identifies the piece as Kutani ware from the Meiji Period CE 1868 to 1912.
Among the five styles of Kutani wares produced in the 19th century, the Yoshidara style pieces are the least prevalent. I always never fail to state that even though this bowl is unsigned, it was done by an individual artist who created this unique composition. This is unlike painted Chinese ceramics in which it was a group effort to produce a piece, a potter to make the object and several painters to decorate it.
Date: 2nd half 19th century
Dimensions: 10.5 inches in diameter, 5 inches high
Condition: good