Edo Export Porcelain, Cobalt Blue
Ko-Imari carried Japan's blue-and-white tradition across oceans during the golden age of export ware. This shallow, scalloped plate of white porcelain frames a hand-painted sometsuke landscape in cobalt, its foliate rim lending a quiet antique elegance.
24K Gold, Polished to Roiro
Keiko Hata completed graduate studies in the urushi department of Kyoto City University of Arts (est. 1880), mastering the full lacquer discipline from woodworking through final gold application. Grounded in this training and her ongoing work conserving Buddhist statues, she restored this plate over four months with natural urushi and 24K gold, finished through roiro, the highest level of urushi polishing. The same steady hand that tends sacred objects guided the single seam crossing this landscape, within a tradition that has adorned Japanese art for centuries.
A Painted Landscape, Crossed in Gold
At the plate's center, a cobalt scene of mountains, water, and a small boat sits within a scalloped cartouche. The single gold seam now runs through it, so the restored line reads almost as part of the painted landscape, the vessel's own history beside the one it depicts.
