DATED TO THE JIAQING 18TH YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 1813 AND OF THE PERIOD

The present plaque belongs to a set of 15 plaques made in Jingdezhen for the Japanese market. According to the inscriptions, the plaque was commissioned by a Japanese patron named Jingdi jushi of Hashimoto (present-day Hashimoto, Wakayama Prefecture) based on the painting ‘Eight Views of Lake Biwa’ by Kano Eigaku (1790-1867), the ninth head of Kyo-Kano School. The ‘Eight Views of Lake Biwa’ was in turn inspired by the ‘Eight Views of Xiangjiang’ of the Dongting Lake region in China. For other plaques from this set, see one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji-15-Qing, Shanghai, 1999, no. 124; one in the Hikone Castle Museum; and one in the Otsu City Museum of History.