Dish, porcelain with clear glaze and decoration in overglaze enamels, silver and gilt; design based on a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858); Japan, Arita kilns, Edo period, ca. 1870

The main image in the well of the dish is base on no. 9, Oiso, Tora-ga-ame, (From the 53 Stations of the Tokaido), published circa 1833-34 by Hoeido. It is surrounded by a lattice band executed in black and white enamels. The rim is decorated with eight cartouches set against a now oxidised silver ground, alternating between gilt on red enamel and stencil-applied blue enamel. The underside is undecorated and there are no marks.

Given by Mr W. H. Alvin-Gamble

The dish is one of a set of twelve, from which the V&A was invited to select one, inherited by the donor by descent from his great-great uncle Lord Strathcoma of Quebec. A similar series of dishes is in the Toguri Museum of Art, Shibuya, Tokyo, where they are catalogued as being the work of Sakaida Kakiemon XII (1878-1963). See catalogue of Christie's sale, 13th and 14th November 1989, at which Mr Alvin-Gamble's set of dishes failed to sell, for references.

According to the donor, Lord Strathcoma received these dishes from the Emperor of Japan in about 1840 for services rendered in connection with Japanese railway building plans. Given that diplomatic and commercial relations between Japan and Western nations were not established until the mid to late 1850s, such an early date is untenable. Japan's first railway (Tokyo to Yokohama) was opened in 1872 after surveys that had begun in March 1870. The work was supervised by mainly British team, many of whom had seen service in the colonies (see Julia Meech-Pekarik, The World of the Meiji Print, (New York, Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1986, pp. 85 ff.). Given Lord Strathcoma's involvement with the railways, a late 1860s or early 1870s is more likely.

Design based on a woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

FE.3-1991