Period: 1900-1920 (Late Meiji-Taisho)
Maker: Koransha (香蘭社)
This bold and luxurious Koransha design imaginatively combines the lustrous vermilion seen on Japanese urushi lacquerware with the stylised decoration of shippo cloisonné. The white blossom, buds and fantasy blue leaves of the botan tree peony are traced in gilt to resemble the delicate gold strips used in cloisonné. The rims are further embellished with a petal-shaped chain in gold, blue, and iron-red.
The Koransha head office in Japan kindly identified for us the pattern and date. The pattern is called Akadami Botan-e (赤濃牡丹絵) and dates from 1900-1920 (late Meiji/Taisho eras). Akadami is a Japanese traditional on-glaze red, and botan (牡丹) is the Japanese word for tree peony.
Koransha was founded in the 1870s by eighth-generation descendants of Fukagawa Eizaemon. Written as 香蘭社 in Japanese, Koransha means ‘fragrant orchid company,’ and a stylised orchid is used as a company emblem (reproduced here on the bottom of the plates). Koransha’s chairman and president are both from the Fukagawa family and the company is still based in Arita, the traditional centre of Japan’s porcelain industry.
In 1895, the second son of the founder of Koransha started a rival porcelain company called Fukagawa Seiji Gaisha (深川製磁会社), which too is still operating in Arita. The existence of two separate Japanese porcelain companies that have close family connections has given rise to much confusion. Outside Japan, one often sees ‘Fukagawa/Koransha’ or ‘Koransha/Fukagawa’ being advertised, as if Koransha and Fukagawa Seiji porcelains were somehow one and the same.
Condition Seven of the eight plates are in very good condition. One plate has a flat 1 cm chip on the underside of the rim (see close-up photograph), invisible from the top. One plate has a very small patch of red ground colour missing; this was a manufacturing flaw and is only apparent on close inspection.
Diameter: 16.7 cm
Net weight: 1,461 g
Origin: Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan
Medium: Hard-paste porcelain
