Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves (c. 1700): Art, History and Details

Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves (c. 1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ogata Kōrin (Japanese, 1658–1716); Ogata Kenzan (Japanese, 1663–1743).

The work and its context

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

The Ogata brothers Kōrin and Kenzan often collaborated on ceramics. This dish is one of a set used for serving tea cakes. Kenzan shaped the dish, after which Kōrin drew the iron oxide design of plovers, a type of shorebird, flying over waves. Kenzan then covered the object with a clear glaze and fired it. Kōrin placed his signature next to his design, while Kenzan signed the back.

Object facts

• Title: Square Dish with Design of Plovers over Waves
• Date: c. 1700
• Creator attribution: Ogata Kōrin (Japanese, 1658–1716); Ogata Kenzan (Japanese, 1663–1743)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Glazed stoneware with iron oxide underglaze slip
• Dimensions: Overall: 22 x 22 x 2.7 cm (8 11/16 x 8 11/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1966.365

A detail from the museum

The design of plovers flying over waves derives from Heian period (900s–1100s) literature and later lacquerware designs.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Zauhō Kankōkai 座右寶刋行會. Sekai tōji zenshū [世界陶磁全集= Ceramic Art of the World]. Vol. 5, Edo hen [江戶篇= Edo Period]. Edited by Tadamari Mitsuoka. Tōkyō: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1955.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• 琳派: 創立百年記念特別展 = Rin-pa. Special exhibition celebrating the Centennial of the Tokyo National Museum. Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum 東京国立博物館, 1972.

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.