Dish with Ginkgo Leaves (late 1600s–early 1700s): Art, History and Details

Dish with Ginkgo Leaves (late 1600s–early 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This dish is an example of the finest type of Japanese porcelain, Nabeshima-type Hizen ware. It has a complex, abstracted design of ginkgo leaves and “Chinese grasses” (karakusa) in underglaze blue that may be among the most interesting of the underglaze blue designs. The dish is the largest of the three standard-sized Nabeshima dishes for individual servings.

Object facts

• Title: Dish with Ginkgo Leaves
• Date: late 1600s–early 1700s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with underglaze blue (Hizen ware, Nabeshima type)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 20 cm (7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2017.61

A detail from the museum

The ginkgo's distinctive fan-shaped leaf is a symbol of longevity and endurance in Japanese art.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• von Spee, Clarissa. “Acquisition Highlights: Asian Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 10–11.
• Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93–104.
• Maezaki, Shinya and Sinéad Vilbar. Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.