Mukozuke Dish with Snowy Cryptomeria Design
This mukosuke seems to be asserting that pine trees are not the only design associated with snow - the cryptomeria (Japanese cedar) is too. Two snow-covered cryptomeria trees are overlapped in this composition, which forms the shape of the dish.
The dish was mold formed and white slip was applied as the ground for painting the trunks and branches of the trees in underglaze iron. White slip was also applied to part of the underside, with hakeme brush marks brushed into it. A transparent glaze was applied to the entire piece. After the glaze firing, green overglaze enamel was applied to depict the cedar foliage. While somewhat difficult to distinguish at first glance, gold pigment has been applied to the base of the trunk and the earth below it.
The underside has three six or seven-sided pyramidal feet attached. Only their bottom edge is unglazed, revealing the clay. The Kenzan signature is inscribed on a rectangular poem slip form on a ground of white slip, outlined in underglaze iron. The transparent glaze has fine crackles throughout, and some pinholes have developed in the slip. The texture of the delicate glaze is remarkable, while the pooling of the beautiful gray-green translucent ash glaze on the base is also one of the highlights of this piece. To highlight the snow on the pines, the iron pigment rim that was one of Kenzan's fortes is omitted. Careful thought went into this design.
This mukosuke was probably part of a set, but no other examples are now known. Given the forming method and the way the Kenzan signature was applied, we can position this piece as indicating the classic Nijo Chojiyamachi period style. This snowy cryptomeria motif is similar to the Tatsutagawa motif of the previous piece, the chrysanthemum motif (Gotoh Museum, Tokyo; Fukuoka Art Museum collection), and the snowy pine motif (Yuki Museum of Art, Osaka; private collection). Kenzan's mukozuke with gold pigment from his Nijo Chojiyamachi period are thought to have been created as special orders and thus are a rank above other pieces from that period.
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