Kutani Sengaku 九谷泉岳 Plate

I found beautiful gold and brown Sengaku Kutani plate on a recent treasure hunt looking for Asian art and antiques.  When I initially saw it laying on the floor of the shop, I was about to pass by it, because, at first glance it didn't look like Japanese porcelain to me, at least not anything currently in my collection or anything I'm familiar with or have seen, nevermind even look antique, but modern, mid 20th century, as it is, but as my habit is, I picked it up to see what the mark said on the bottom, and that's when I saw the mark and said to my self  "ooh.. it's Kutani".   The plate is a golden yellow, with brown pine trees, and some gold leaf details and is marked 九谷泉岳,  Kutani Sengaku.

When I got home I had to refer to kanji charts and after flipping through page after page, looking through at least 1000+ different kanji, I was able to translate the name Sengaku 泉岳, although I immediately recognized the characters for Kutani 九谷, and knew the character for ku & ga 岳, I had to look up the remaining character 泉, which took some time, & I am pleased with my efforts to translate the signature as that of Sengaku.  The mark reads 九谷泉岳, Kutani Sengaku..

As of this posting, I have yet to find out any information on Sengaku, the artist who made this, other than he was born in 1933 and specializes in polychromes.  Assuming it's the same Sengaku who makes Kutani porcelain under the name Nakamura Sengaku.  Unfortunately the search results for Kutani Sengaku are flooded with spammy results from a particular shady scammer on eBay that is fraudulently claiming a particular Sengaku piece as a Meiji period antique, which is a load of fabricated BS because Sengaku wasn't even alive then, and didn't start making ceramics until probably the 1950s.


For Sale.  $500 usd /obo + shipping & insurance

Jiāqìng Period Qing Dynasty Chinese Porcelain Famille Verte Plate Da Qing Jiaqing Nian Zhi 大清嘉庆年制

I'm thrilled with today's Asian treasure finds, among them, this authentic, original Qing Dynasty Jiāqìng period Famille Verte charger plate, circa 1796 - 1820, with a butterflies and gourds motif.  It is marked with the traditional zhuanshu seal of the period, 大清嘉庆年制 , Dà qīng jiāqìng nián zhì, and is in near mint condition.  The back has 4 red bats.

 

The motif of butterflies and gourds are a favorite design on Chinese enamelled wares.

 Butterfly ( dié 蝶 ) and gourds ( guā 瓜 ) represent the wish for many sons and grandsons (Guā dié miánmián 瓜瓞 绵绵 ). The thousands of seeds found in gourds symbolize the wish for ceaseless generations of descendants. According to Teresa Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 62, the term 'guadie mianmian' comes from the Book of Odes which is one of the earliest collections of Chinese poetry. 

In classical feng shui applications, the bat is considered a symbol of wealth and used as a wealth cure because the same word/pronunciation for Bat is "fu", which also means "Prosperity" in Chinese. Bat also came to represent happiness and longevity, so it is an auspicious symbol in Chinese culture.

The bat (fu 蝠) is a representation of "good fortune" or happiness (fu 福) because both characters are pronounced fu.  Often the bat is shown flying upside down because the character (dao 倒) for "upside-down" and the character (dao 到) meaning "to have arrived" are both pronounced dao.  Therefore, if a person were to say "the bat is flying upside down" a listener could just as easily hear this as "happiness has arrived" which, of course, has a very auspicious connotation. 

   Also, "a bat descending from the sky" (fuzi tianlai 蝠子天来) sounds exactly like "happiness descends from heaven" (fuzi tianlai 福子天来). Two bats facing each other mean double good fortune or happiness.

In the Mandarin Language, a bat is called Biānfú ,  蝙蝠 which is homophonous with Biàn fú, 變福 which means “becoming prosperous” or “turning into blessings”.

Japanese Double Fish Wood Sculpture Made by Ōkawa Kōtarō 幸古郎 作 幸野 氏

Not too long ago I wrote about a Chinese auspicious double fish wind chime I found in a local second hand resale shop, and today I'd like to share with you a Japanese double fish wood sculpture I just found a few days ago.

   Ironic that the double fish symbol is an auspicious symbol, because I literally just found this out of nowhere.  I was walking home with my daughter when I saw a plastic bin full of old photo albums next to trash barrels.   Curious about what else may be in the bin, I decided to take a look, against the objections of my daughter who whined at me "oh my god!. It's just old junk.  There's nothing Chinese in it".   Well, lo and behold, to my delight, and bewildered at this odd coincidence, I happily responded back to her "Yes there is, see" as I pull out and hold up this Japanese wood sculpture of double fish mounted on a tree wood slice.

It appears I have been blessed with good fortune. :)

 






        At the time, when I initially found it, I assumed it to be Chinese, however, having asked my friend Hung in Taiwan for a translation, it turns out that it is Japanese.   The calligraphy text reads 大川 幸太郎, which translates as being made by Master Ōkawa Kōtarō 幸野 氏,

Okawa Kotaro is a traditional wood carver who specialises in Buddhist statuary. He lives and works in the Shitamachi neighbourhood of Tokyo, Asakusa.  He is the author & subject of the book "How to Make Wood Carving of Buddha: Gentle Buddhist Image Maker in Pictures"