Snow-covered tree designs in Japan can depict either pine trees or sugi cryptomeria trees. This work depicts two cryptomeria trees blanketed in snow, with the outline of the dish following the shape of the trees. Mold-formed, the dish was coated in white slip, and then underglaze iron was used to draw the trunks of the trees. The exterior side surfaces were also coated in white slip and decorated with underglaze iron broad-brush strokes. The dish was coated with transparent glaze overall and fired at a high temperature. After this main firing, green overglaze enamel was used to depict the cryptomeria foliage area, and gold pigment was brushed around the base of the trunks to depict the ground. The gold pigment has since flaked off. The back surface has three hexagonal or septagonal-shaped attached conical feet, and the base edge of each foot was left unglazed. The marks of the carving tools remain clearly visible on each foot. In the center of the dish back, a “Kenzan” signature drawn in underglaze iron is placed in a white slip tanzaku poem paper-shaped frame that is bordered with a single line of underglaze iron. Fine crackling has formed in the glaze overall and there are several pinholes in the white slip areas, giving the dish a softened surface feel. There are pale ash blue colored spots of puddled transparent glaze on the back surface that formed beautifully in the firing. As in the snow-covered pine tree design dishes shown here as cat. nos. 136 and 137, the underglaze iron usually brushed around the mouth rim edge of this type of dish has been omitted here, leaving the mouth rim light and furthering the sense of complete snowy coverage. While this work is thought originally to have been part of a set, it is the only known extant dish of its type. The formation techniques seen and the “Kenzan” signature handling are all typical of a mukozuke dish made during the Nijochojiyacho period.
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