A RARE JAPANESE ARITA VESSEL

A RARE JAPANESE ARITA VESSEL

EDO PERIOD, C.1700-40

Modelled as a man riding on a giant carp, painted in underglaze blue, gilt, red, green, purple and black enamels, with details of the scales moulded in the surface; the fish's mouth open and with apertures in the figure's sleeves for the air to escape during firing; the tail with a hole for suspension and the flat base with gauze marks, 25.5cm.

See the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, access. no.EA1978.447 for another example. Also, see the Princessehof Ceramics Museum, Leeuwarden, access. no. NO 01097, for a related model. Cf. C Shimizu, La Porcelaine Japonaise, p.99, where the Princessehof example is illustrated. Later models depicting a man seated astride a carp jumping out of water are more common: see Christie's, Japanese and Korean Art, 18th March 2014, lot 460A, for two of these figures described as vases.

This piece may be an illustration of the myth of the Namazu or Onamazu, a giant catfish that lives underneath the islands of Japan. The figure may represent the deity Takemikazuchi who controls the giant catfish. When the beast escapes its divine keeper, its movements are said to cause earthquakes. Another theory suggests that the figure may be the 12th century hero Benkei fighting the Giant Carp.