Covered Bowl with Seven Treasures

The box lid for this large covered bowl by Yohei II identifies it as in the style of Ninsei, a reference to Nonomura Ninsei. Overglaze enamels in red, green, and white sit within lattices of jewel-shaped gold forms scattered across the lid and base in a design known as the seven treasures. At the center of the lid is a knob in the shape of a peach with a stem and leaves. A prominent feature of the piece is the appearance of warm pink dots known as gohon. Here creamy at their center and with a gradation to almost red at the edges, they appear during firing due to high iron content in the clay. Pieces with this effect were made in emulation of certain ash-glazed ceramics imported from Korea. The originals were made to order for the Japanese market at a kiln in Busan. The kiln was established within the Japanese diplomatic compound in that port city by the lord of Tsushima in 1639 and continued production until 1717. In the 17th century, teabowls from Korea in a variety of styles were extremely popular among practitioners of Japanese-style tea, and they were soon copied by ceramists active on the archipelago, including in Kyoto.