A PAIR OF KO-KUTANI 'SHISHI AND PEONY' DISHES

A RARE PAIR OF KO-KUTANI YABUMI-FORM 'SHISHI AND PEONY' DISHES
Marked Fuku
Japan, late 17th to 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Published & Exhibited: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (1936) Exposicion de Arte de China y Japon, Buenos Aires, nos. 550 and 551.

Each dish shaped as a yamubi (arrow letter) supported on three short feet, the long sides straight on the exterior and slightly tapered to the interior. Finely enameled in tones of aubergine, red, green, yellow, and black to the interior with a shishi beside rocks and peony and to the exterior with ribboned auspicious objects. Each with the FUKU mark to the base.

LENGTH 16.8 cm (each)

Condition: Good condition with minor wear, few small nicks, and firing flaws.
Provenance: Collection of Mauro Herlitzka, Buenos Aires, and thence by descent. With several old museum labels. Mauro Herlitzka (1871-1960) was an Italian-born Argentinian engineer. He emigrated to Argentina in 1898 and became very successful in the electricity sector, introducing the Marconi wireless telegraph system, installing telephone service in numerous provinces, and overseeing the first international flight from Argentina.

In feudal Japan, messages were sometimes sent by tying a letter to an arrow and shooting the arrow to the intended recipient. Such letters were known as yabumi (lit. 'arrow text'). A woodblock print by Suzuki Harunobu (d. 1770), titled Love-letter Arrow and depicting a man about to send off a yabumi, is in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum (accession number A-10569-112).

Auction comparison:
Compare a related Ko-Kutani dish with a Fuku mark, of slightly larger size and dated to the late 17th century, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 15 September 2015, New York, lot 3210 (bought-in at an estimate of 3,500-4,500 USD).