![An Outstanding Enamelled Pottery Sukashi-Bachi [Openwork Bowl]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2002/CKS/2002_CKS_06589_0019_000(044006).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This exceptional example of the decorative genius of Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) is thought to date from the first half of the potter's Chojiyamachi period (1712-31), following his return to Kyoto after a period spent at Narutaki to the north of the city. In his major study published in 1991, Richard Wilson notes that Kenzan ' was the first to conceive of the holes as part of the decoration... The voids suggest space between branches, stems, and flowers'. The decoration on these sukashi-bachi, nearly always consisting of one or more seasonal flowers, anticipates the potter's last phase when he devoted his full attention to painting on paper.1
1 Richard L. Wilson, The Art of Ogata Kenzan: Persona and Production in Japanese Ceramics (New York and Tokyo, 1991), pp. 125-7
Similar Example:
Mitsuoka Tadanari, Kenzan (Tokyo, 1973), no. 23, in the Hatakeyama Kinenkan, Tokyo; for this form of the signature see in particular Wilson, op. cit., fig. 75.
1 Richard L. Wilson, The Art of Ogata Kenzan: Persona and Production in Japanese Ceramics (New York and Tokyo, 1991), pp. 125-7
Similar Example:
Mitsuoka Tadanari, Kenzan (Tokyo, 1973), no. 23, in the Hatakeyama Kinenkan, Tokyo; for this form of the signature see in particular Wilson, op. cit., fig. 75.