↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · early 1830s
South Wind, Clear Sky, from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · c. 1700
Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves
- Date
- c. 1700
- Medium
- Glazed stoneware with iron oxide underglaze slip
- Dimensions
- Overall: 22 x 22 x 2.7 cm (8 11/16 x 8 11/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
- Country / context
- Japan
- Movement / tradition
- Japanese art and printmaking
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Attribution / role
- Designed by; made with specialist craftspeople
- Pathway
- Japanese art and printmaking ↗
FROM THE MUSEUM
The Ogata brothers Kōrin and Kenzan often collaborated on ceramics. This dish is one of a set used for serving tea cakes. Kenzan shaped the dish, after which Kōrin drew the iron oxide design of plovers, a type of shorebird, flying over waves. Kenzan then covered the object with a clear glaze and fired it. Kōrin placed his signature next to his design, while Kenzan signed the back.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0Place in the artist’s career
Compare ink plum branches, the glazed dish and the later gold-ground iris screens. Brush-made asymmetry can operate on silk, a shaped ceramic object or a large folding surface. Colour changes with glaze, ink and metallic ground. The dish has collaborative authorship, while “after 1709” is a date boundary, not an exact year.
The artist’s practice
Artist-wide context; individual works may differ.
Media and surface
Silk painting, glazed ceramics and gold-ground screens carry designs across very different objects.
Marks and structure
Bold silhouettes, asymmetry and repeated motifs organise nature as rhythmic pattern.
Palette and light
Ink, glaze and reflective gold alter brightness and contrast; the ground is an active part of the palette.
A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.Follow a connection.
Explore the tradition ↗↗
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · 1833
Driving Rain at Shōno, from Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaidō
Utagawa Hiroshige
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · c. 1793
The Flirtatious Type, from Ten Types in the Physiognomy of Women
Kitagawa Utamaro
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · c. 1830
A Low Tide Pentaptych
Utagawa Kuniyoshi