-
Bowl
Gensaiken - Enlarge image
Bowl
- Place of origin:
Satsuma, Japan (made)
- Date:
1850-1865 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Gensaiken (decorator)
- Materials and Techniques:
Earthenware, with a crackled cream glaze and decoration in overglaze enamels and gilt
- Museum number:
866-1869
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125d, case 3
Object Type
In Japan tea is traditionally drunk from small bowls such as this. This example was made in Satsuma in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. The ceramics first made in Satsuma in the 17th century were usually plain. By the second half of the 19th century, when this bowl was made, Satsuma potters were decorating their works in enamels and gilt.
Subjects Depicted
This bowl is decorated with two carp. The carp is highly prized in Japan and is associated with a Chinese legend in which any fish able to leap over the famous longmen waterfall was transformed into a dragon. The story, known as 'Climbing the Dragon Gate', was a metaphor for success and advancement.
Time
After Japan opened its ports to foreign trade in the 1850s, a craze for all things Japanese swept across Britain, Europe and the United States. Japan was eager to exploit this enthusiasm and discovered that the big international exhibitions that took place in Europe and America in the second half of the 19th century were an ideal opportunity to promote its products. Japan organised its first display for the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Satsuma had its own section at the show and exhibited many works by its potters, including this bowl. The success of the 1867 display initiated a great vogue in the West for highly decorated Satsuma ceramics. They became so popular that other potteries in Japan began to copy them.
