Stunning Large Japanese Circular Form Imari Deep Cabinet Bowl or Centerpiece of outstanding quality and generous proportions and good weight, made during the last half of the Nineteenth Century, firmly attributed to Koransha Potteries. 

Extensively hand decorated with all over typical decorative with Japanese Figures in landscape slightly abstract palette in colours of iron red and dark blues on an off-white ground. The central body with raised floral enameling in colours of blue and greys on a dark red ground.    

Condition: Superb condition for such an early piece with no restoration anywhere, the entire rims are perfect, very light evidence of gentle use. 

Height: 5.5” (14cm). Diameter: (top rim an impressive) 12” (30cm). 

Affordable fixed charge Worldwide Store to door shipping offered by Seller.  

Koransha Pottery was first founded in 1689 by Matashiro Fukagawa. It was then called Eizaemon Fukagawa and was one of the very first potteries to begin porcelain production in Arita. From its very beginning the company focused on making products for overseas export. Today, Koransha is continuing this tradition. 

The current structure of Koransha was established in 1879 during the era of Japonisme in the West.  

Japan had been closed up until that period. When the Meiji Period began, there was no industry yet in Japan. Koransha was focused on exporting porcelain in an attempt to acquire a foreign currency. The luxurious porcelain that Koransha produced at that time, often with gold overglaze, is still popular with antiques dealers in Europe today.  

Traditionally, all the labour of porcelain production is divided in Arita; the making of shapes, the production of underglaze, glaze and overglaze and the firing are each undertaken separately. But at Koransha all of these processes are done in-house. First, porcelain-making requires a plaster mould into which the clay is poured. Making these moulds takes considerable skill.  

Imari Ware first began arriving from Japan to Europe in the late 17th century. The elegant porcelain thrilled royals and nobles, and was not only used as high-end crockery but also displayed as status symbols in royal palaces. The mountain village of Okawachiyama and its secret kilns is the best place to explore the history of Imari ware. 

The origins of Japan’s prized Imari ware can be traced back four centuries to Kyushu, when a potter discovered the white kaolin clay essential to producing porcelain in the town of Arita. Arita Potters were soon making porcelain and shipping it from nearby Imari Port to other parts of Japan. Despite the source, their products became known as Imari ware—or Imari for short—and porcelain from the Edo period (1603-1867) is collectively referred to as Old Imari ware. 

Today Japanese Imari Antique Porcelain items remain as popular as ever throughout Europe, America and Canada. This is a stunning Centerpiece showing Imari decoration at its very best.