Plate with grapevines, trellis, and geometric design

美濃 Mino ware, 鼠志野 Nezumi Shino type; Formal tea gatherings are accompanied by kaiseki, multicourse communal meals at which dishes would be served on plates like this one, which was created by a potter in the Mino region of central Japan. Mino potters in the late 1500s produced a wide variety of innovative ceramic styles in quick succession, with each style swiftly arousing interest, but then just as quickly dying out—wares that included the now celebrated Black Seto, Yellow Seto, Oribe, and Shino styles. This plate represents a substyle of Shino ware known as Nezumi, or “mouse-gray” Shino. Potters created these wares by applying a coat of iron-rich slip (liquid clay) to the formed vessel, allowing it to dry, and then using a sharp tool to etch a design into the coating, revealing the white clay below. This and other Mino vessels from the late 1500s were fired in partially underground kilns known as an ōgama.