13. Oribe small diamond-shaped footed dish

13. Oribe small diamond-shaped footed dish

 

Light tan clay; glazed in green, brown, and brownish red; bottom and feet left unglazed. Weight: 334 g (12 oz). Dimensions: 12.5 cm square (4-7/8 in). Height: overall 5.5 cm (2-1/16 in); body 4.5 cm (1-5/8 in). 

The two indented corners were dipped in a dark-green glaze, which ran down the sides and pooled so thickly on the floor of the interior that in places the glaze appears almost black. A line was drawn with a brush using brown glaze (probably an iron-rich slip) around the sides of the interior parallel to the rim of the dish. The rim itself was coated with the brown glaze. The sides of the dish were decorated in a dark-red glaze in a vertical leaf-like pattern between pairs of parallel vertical lines. The feet were created with small rolls of clay, bent back into a loop, with the ends pressed against the bottom of the dish. The remnants of the posts used to separate pots in kilns are visible on the bottom.

Packed in a wooden box, with characters in black ink and two red seal stamps on the lid. The column on characters on the right side of the box lid reads  織部菱小鉢  (Oribe hishi kobachi), “Small Oribe diamond[-shaped] dish.” The red seal stamped in the upper-right corner is faded and impossible to decipher, but it would be the name of the kiln.  The potter’s name is given in the column of characters on the left side. They are written in an extreme form of “grass” characters and are beyond my ability to read. The red stamp below this column is the potter’s personal seal.  The seals are unique and are considered stamps of authenticity, somewhat equivalent to a handwritten signature in the West.

This small dish might be used in a formal Japanese meal to present a few artfully arranged slices of vegetables or pickles.

Purchased at the Japan Trade Center in San Francisco in the late 1980s or early 1990s.