REKIHAKU

No.133 A Witness to History

Exported lacquer dishes

Fig. 1. Maki-e dish with family crest and a motif featuring mountains, rivers and human figures (Museum collection), 17th to 18th centuries. Motifs depicting Mount Fuji became popular around the middle of the 17th century and were much used in Hizen chinaware from the Kambun period (1661-73). Lacquer dishes exported around that time also contained pictures of Mount Fuji and the design of the dish shown here followed this trend.

In Europe ceramic ware is called "china" and lacquer ware " japan" . The export of lacquer ware to Europe got underway well before the export of ceramic ware.

The Dutch East India Company took an active interest in the trade of lacquer ware starting in 1634. It seems that by the time that the export of ceramic ware began around 1659, lacquer ware made in Japan had already established a firm reputation for itself as a luxury item that came from East Asia. Various kinds of lacquer items were made for export besides the large pieces of maki-e furniture such as decorative boxes and cabinets, which were the most popular. Dishes such as plates of varying sizes and cups make up one important category of exported lacquer items.

	Fig. 2. Part of the maki-e dish with family crest and a motif featuring mountains, rivers and human figures (Museum collection). The figures of travelers on the road interspersed with pictures of Mount Fuji no doubt satisfied the desire of Europeans for exotic scenes. The cabinet in the collection at Huis Ten Bosch Palace that comes from the Oranje family is known for its depiction of a journey to the shogun's headquarters by the head of the Dejima trade mission. However, it is interesting to note that the procession shown here is not of the head of the Dutch trade mission nor of Japanese, but of Korean envoys.
Fig. 3. Part of the maki-e dish with family crest and a motif featuring mountains, rivers and human figures (Museum collection).）	Fig. 4. The shape of the bottom of the maki-e dish with family crest and a motif featuring mountains, rivers and human figures (Museum collection) that does not have a foot originates from metal dishes made in Europe.

Of particular interest among tableware made for export are large made-to-order items with family crests that were made to meet demand from people of rank.

It is evident from the large family crest on the maki-e dish with family crest and a motif featuring mountains, rivers and human figures held in the Museum's collection (Figures 1 through 4) that it was made for the Hinlopen family, a merchant family from Amsterdam that had had strong ties with the Dutch East India Company since the company's inception. The area around the rim of the plate shows travel scenes from the Tokaido around Mount Fuji made using detailed maki-e, indicating that this was a specially ordered dish made with the utmost care.

Similar items are those depicting the family crests of Willem van Outhoorn, who was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1691 to 1704, Joan van Hoorn, who succeeded van Outhoorn as Governor-General from 1704 to 1709, and Valckenier, who held a key position in the Dutch East India Company. Judging from the close resemblance borne by the landscapes around the rims of some of these items, particularly the large dish made for the Valckenier family, to those on the large plate made for the Hinlopen family, it is quite possible that they were made by the same workshop. The export of maki-e dishes bearing family crests became popular from the second half of the 17th century through to the first half of the 18th century. It is interesting to note that it was around this time that ceramic ware also bearing family crests were exported.

Fig. 5. Large maki-e plates with peony motif (Museum collection) 17th to 18th centuries These plates were handed down as a pair.	Fig. 6. Bottom of large maki-e plate with peony motif (Museum collection) This is the same shape as large Hizen ceramic plates whose export flourished from the second half of the 17th century. The composition of three broken peony stems is reminiscent of the ceramic ware style.

The absence of a foot on the bottom of the large plate made for the Hinlopen family makes it a style of tableware not seen in Japan. It was, therefore, most probably a lacquer imitation of a silver or pewter plate made in Europe.

In contrast, there are some pieces of lacquer ware that were clearly made by copying the style of ceramic ware. Large dishes like the large maki-e plates with peony motif held in the Museum's collection (Figures 5 and 6) are extremely rare.

Fig. 7.
Maki-e beard dish with castle, mountain, river and animal motif (Museum collection),
17th to 18th centuries.
Examples of oval beard dishes are rare,
and it is thought that they were imitations of ceramic ware made in China.

There are, however, other examples, such as the large maki-e bowl with lid and flower and bird motif (Ashmolean Museum) and a large-mouthed maki-e jar with castle, mountain and river motif (Pillnitz Palace, Dresden Museum of Decorative Arts). Since there are virtually no examples of large plates or large bowls to be found among items of personal lacquer ware made for Japanese consumption, it is clear that they were made by imitating the style of ceramic ware made for export.

Another item of lacquer ware that is believed to have been influenced by ceramic ware is the maki-e beard dish with castle, mountain, river and animal motif (Figure 7). These so-called "beard" dishes are an unusual type of dish that is made by removing a crescent-shaped section from the edge of the dish. They were used for shaving beards by pressing the part with indentation against the neck. It is said that they were also used as receptacles for the medical practice of bloodletting.

The small hole on the bottom of the section where the foot is suggests that it was hung on the wall as an ornament. We may conclude that this beard dish and the large plate described in this article were used as ornaments in Europe rather than for practical purposes.

Fig. 8. Colored, overglazed beard dish with woman and flower cart motif (Saga Prefectural Museum collection), Hizen-Arita, 1700-1730.	Fig. 9. Beard dish with blue flowers, grasses and brushwood fence motif against white background (Idemitsu Museum of Arts collection), Delft, The Netherlands, 18th century.

Kaori Hidaka (Art History, Research Department)