Ko-Imari Square Bottle with Blue Dots 18. 「古伊万里」青花點紋瓷瓶

18. Ko-Imari Square Bottle with Blue Dots
「古伊万里」青花點紋瓷瓶
Height: 24.1 cm. (9 1/2 in.)
Width: 10.2 cm. (4 in.)
Edo period,
18th century A.D.
高 24.1 厘米
寬 10.2 厘米
江戶
Published: Shirasu Jiro and Shirasu Masako, Two People Living in a World of Disarray, Tokyo, 2008, p. 52.
The porcelain bottle is of square form with rounded corners rising from a conforming foot
with recessed base. A relatively long neck with thickened mouth rim emerges from the graceful
sloping shoulders. Perfect circles ranging in size from small to medium and large are formed
with pencil-thin underglaze-blue outlines and left blank or filled with a pale blue wash while
others are colored with a deeper blue and some shaded from lighter to darker blue and others
were given a mottled appearance like the earth viewed from space. All float on the surface, some
across the rounded corners, like bubbles or water droplets, above a double line border around
the foot. The transparent glaze has a bluish tinge with a satiny surface that exhibits a slight
orange peel texture observable upon close examination. The compact white body is visible on
the unglazed footrim.
How appropriate and enticing that bubbles
should float into view on a vessel whose purpose
was to hold some delectable alcoholic libation.
The square-bottle shape derived ultimately from
the ingenious glass, metal, stoneware and faience
bottles created by the Dutch and various of their
European neighbors for ease and economy in
storing or transporting beverages (fig. 1).1 The
Chinese provided models closer to home in the
square porcelain bottles they were producing
for the western market since the 16th century
(fig. 2). Some were made to order with such
designs as crests or coats-of-arms of the nobility
including those produced for Philip II and Philip
III of Spain. However, if an effervescent drink is
not quite in keeping either with the gin, schnapps,
wine, or sake the bottles were intended to hold,
then perhaps the circles represent something else.
A universe of planets, moons and suns against
a blinding white sky? Or are they rain or dew
drops? The dew-drop motifs decorating a set of
serving dishes is among the many designs current
on kosometsuke, made-in-China underglaze-blue
decorated wares fashioned in accordance with
Fig. 1: Enameled glass
bottle, Bohemia, dated
A.D. 1572, Los Angeles
County Museum of Art,
after George Kuwayama,
Chinese Ceramics in Colonial
Mexico, Los Angeles, 1997,
fig. 14, p. 38.
Fig. 2: Underglaze-blue
decorated square porcelain
bottle with trees and flowers,
late Ming dynasty, late 16thearly 17th century A.D., after
Jorge Welsh, Kraak Porcelain:
the Rise of Global Trade in
the Late 16h and Early 17th
Centuries, London, 2008,
no. 23, p. 170.
cont. on p. 189
50
cont. of cat. 18: Ko-Imari Square Bottle with Blue Dots
Fig. 3: Kosometsuke leaf-form dish, late Ming
dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Masahiko
Kawahara, Kosometsuke, vol. 1, pl. 169, p. 217.
Fig. 5: Kakiemon
porcelain standing
beauty, Edo period,
17th century A.D.,
after To–ji Taisei,
vol. 20 (Kakiemon),
Heibonsha, Tokyo,
1977, pl. 19.
Fig. 4: Pair of Imari porcelain bottles, Edo period, early
18th century A.D., Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
after Ayers, John & Impey, Oliver & Mallet, J. V. G.,
Porcelain for Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe 16501750, London, 1990, p. 222.
Japanese taste, appreciated in Japan, utilized
within the world of tea at that time, and admired
and preserved in Japanese collections from then
on, and providing inspiration for the Japanese at
many points along the way (fig. 3).
The earliest Arita potters, embarking on
their porcelain producing venture from the
first decade of the 17th century, were heavily
influenced in numerous respects by the current
imports from China and yet they also set out on
paths mapped by their own designers and potters.
The standard overglazed enamels of the Edo
period were called either Arita, after the town
where kilns were located, or Imari after the port
from which the wares were shipped to domestic
destinations and abroad. Imari decorators did
not completely abandon the influence of the
Chinese but they clearly favored certain colors
and floral motifs above others that make their
wares typically Japanese (fig. 4). On the other
hand, creations that were expressions entirely
of the Japanese spirit, culture, and fashion
emerged, a fitting example of this being the
porcelain bijin, Japanese "beauties." that graced
the 17th-century stage of porcelain production.
Gorgeous kimono gave the Japanese decorators
an opportunity to exercise their craft with
stunning results; note the attire here patterned
with large circles that appear entirely abstract
(figs. 5-6) or dispersed among falling blossoms
representing the descending drops of a refreshing
Fig. 6: Detail of fig. 5.
51
Fig. 8: Detail of fig. 7.
1. For a "square wooden chest with hinged lid...."
and "... a Dutch East Indies chased silver
lock-plate....Designed to hold nine square
bottles with coved shoulders," see John Ayers,
Oliver Impey, and J.V.G. Mallet, Porcelain for
Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe 16501750, London, 1990, p. 105. It is also noted
"This travelling chest illustrates well a Dutch
captain’s requirement, made originally with
bottles of glass or metal, which inspired one
of the most common of Japanese export
porcelain forms."
Fig. 7: Kakiemon porcelain seated beauty, Edo period,
17th century A.D., Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo,
after To–ji Taisei, vol. 20 (Kakiemon), Heibonsha, Tokyo,
1977, pl. 17.
rain (figs. 7-8). The bottle with its floating orbs,
droplets, polka-dots, heavenly bodies, or bubbles is
not only a delight to behold and, in fact, to hold,
but it is also a challenge to our imaginations.
52