amulet-holder
- Museum number
- Franks.1294.+
- Description
-
Holder for fortune telling sticks in a Shinto shrine. Made of moulded porcelain with colour glazes depicting five Chinese young boys (karako) playing blind man's bluff around the large fortune holder. Marked. Hirado ware.
- Production date
- 1850-1899
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 19.30 centimetres
-
Height: 26.92 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
-
This is a Hirado-ware piece produced in the 19th century at the end of Edo period or in the Meiji era. The quality and the condition of firing are good. This work was not widely produced. It is unclear whether it was made for export or for use in a shrine. On the figures of children that adorn the work, the knotted hair, shoes and Chinese characters were decorated with gosu (cobalt blue) without a transparent glaze covering; these areas then became black-tinted in the main firing. Other areas used cobalt blue glaze, iron brown glaze and celadon glaze. The back has a trace of cloth used during production. (Prof. Ohashi Koji, 2016)
-
This finely moulded holder for fortune-telling sticks (omikuji) was obviously made for domestic use in Japan. The karako that encircle the base of this work are playing blind man's bluff. Their faces are carefully moulded and their expressions are depicted realistically. Four of the children are engrossed in their play with one child staring at the viewer. The holder, base and one of the children's faces and hands are left unglazed. The stand leans slightly to the left as it became warped during the firing process. The children's clothes and faces are articulated with cobalt blue, iron oxide brown and celadon glazes. (NCR 2015)
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- Franks.1294.+
