An elegant and early mid-17th century Ai-Kutani moulded dish, very elegantly painted with a weeping willow tree superimposed upon overlapping folded paper (shikishi)
 
Kusunokidani kiln, Ai-Kutani type, Arita ware, Hizen province, Japan
Early Edo Period (mid-17th century)
circa 1650-60
 
The moulded ten-lobed grayish-white porcelain body of shallow circular form decorated with two shikishi (square special paper used for painting or calligraphy) reserved against the blue-ground centre, a boldly painted weeping willow featured on the uppermost paper square; the turned-down corner of the shikishi conveying an air of elegant informality so greatly prized by the Japanese.
 
The reverse asymmetrically encircled with ginko leaves and a trailing vine. On the base is a fuku mark within a square cartouche. Three spur marks on the base where the dish rested on its sagger in the kiln.
 
This dish - a most refined and elegant example of the early so-called Ai-Kutani wares produced in Arita - is even more notable as it can be strongly attributed to the important early kiln of Kusunokidani which is now believed to be the kiln at which Kakiemon I (1586-1666) perfected his craft in the late 1640s and throughout the 1650s before establishing his own kiln (Old Kakiemon kiln B) at Nangawara sometime in the 1660s. Identical sherds of the shikishi & willow design dish have been excavated at the Kusunokidani kiln site (see final image attached).
 
With Japanese paulownia wood storage box.
 
Measurements:
8 inches in diameter (21.5 cm);  0.85 inches in height (2.2 cm).
 
Condition report:
In excellent original condition.