2. Large Seto-ware platter, with Horse’s Eye pattern

2. Large Seto-ware platter, with Horse’s Eye pattern 

 

Coarse gray stoneware. Top surface and most of sides glazed; undercoat is cream colored; the color of the design varies from brown to black depending on the thickness of the glaze; there is a streak of white over two of the brown “eyes.” Weight: 2.09 kg (4-2/3 lb). Diameter of rim: 33 cm (12-7/8 in); diameter of foot ring: 15 cm (6 in). Height: 7 cm (2-5/8 in). Three characters were written in ink on the base . Six scars from the wads used to separate pieces during firing are visible on the top surface.

Seto City is a pottery-making center in Aichi prefecture in central Japan. Seto-ware (Setoyaki 瀬藤焼), which is classed as a “folk pottery,” has been made there since the thirteenth century. Seto is known for a brown iron glaze, which is probably the one used here on the rim and for the decoration. The decorative pattern on this dish is known as “Horse’s Eye” (Uma no me 馬の目).  This pattern was popular as a decoration on large platters from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, although this particular example is most likely a modern one. The characters on the base probably are the signature of the potter. The central one ヨis the katakana symbol for the syllable “yo”; the bottom one 一 is for the character for the number 1 and is pronounced “ichi.” “Yoichi” is a not uncommon given name for a man. The top symbol is not a character; since it looks like Mount Fuji, it may indicate that the potter’s name has the element Fuji or Yama (mountain) in it. Purchased at the Japan Trade Center in San Francisco, sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. At that time there were two shops in that complex selling high-quality Japanese pottery. Most of it was imported, but occasionally items from the estates of older generations of Japanese-Americans were available.