When the Japanese first started exporting porcelain to Europe in the mid-seventeenth century, the majority of wares were blue-and-white. By the 1660s, however, Dutch potters in Delft were using tin-glazed earthenware to produce convincing copies of imported blue-and-white porcelain, which, having not been available from China for a short period during the 1640s and 1650s, were now entering Europe from both China and Japan. The glut of blue-and-white and the relatively high price of Japanese compared with Chinese porcelain meant that the agents of the Dutch East India Company based in Japan needed new kinds of product to entice their customers in Holland and other parts of Europe.

The solution they found was to order Japanese porcelains decorated in enamels, the technology of which had been introduced into Arita, Japan's main centre for porcelain production, during the 1640s. Entirely new to the West, and not found on Chinese export porcelain of this period, these colourful wares immediately captivated the market and remained highly prized well into the eighteenth century. There were two main types of Japanese polychrome export porcelain - Kakiemon wares, of which this bottle is an especially fine example, and Imari wares, on which overglaze enamels were combined with extensive painting in underglaze cobalt blue.

Kakiemon wares were highly refined and sparingly decorated with asymmetric designs that left much of the beautiful milk-white body exposed. In some cases, though not here, parts of the design were painted in uderglaze blue prior to the initial high-temperature firing. The main feature of all Kakiemon wares, however, was the use of a striking palette of cerulean blue, soft coral red, green, yellow and black enamels painted and fused on during a second, lower-temperature firing. This was carried out at independent enamelling studios, of which several, including that run by the Kakiemon family (from whom the whole category of wares takes its name), were active by the 1660s.

Kakiemon wares had more influence on European ceramics than any other kind of polychrome porcelain imported from East Asia. They were extensively copied in the Netherlands, France, Germany and England.