218 - IMASHIKA: A MASTERFUL RETICULATED HIRADO MIKAWACHI PORCELAIN ‘TWO CARP SWIMMING AMONG CHERRY BLOSSOMS’ VASE

IMASHIKA: A MASTERFUL RETICULATED HIRADO MIKAWACHI PORCELAIN ‘TWO CARP SWIMMING AMONG CHERRY BLOSSOMS’ VASE By Imashika, signed Mikawachi Imashika sei Japan, early 20th century, Meiji period (1868-1912) Superbly potted, the large baluster body gently tapering toward the foot and rising through high rounded shoulders to a subtly waisted neck with a gently everted rim. Ingeniously constructed with a double wall, the outer shell intricately reticulated in a fine hexagonal lattice and exquisitely painted in underglaze cobalt blue and iron-brown beneath a transparent glaze. The continuous composition depicts two large carp swimming through sweeping currents beneath blossoming cherry branches, their powerful bodies rendered in finely graduated iron tones and overlapping the broad ribbons of cobalt-blue water. The pierced outer wall reveals the separately formed inner vessel, itself painted in underglaze blue with further currents and drifting blossoms, creating an extraordinary impression of depth as the decoration appears to recede behind the openwork lattice. The shoulders are encircled by a formal band of pointed lappets. The lower body impressed with two oval reserves Mikawachi IMASHIKA sei [made by Imashika, Mikawachi]. HEIGHT 30 cm Provenance: From a noted private collection in New York, United States. Condition: Excellent condition. No restorations or repairs visible in UV light. The impressed Imashika sei (今鹿製) mark is associated with the historic Imamura kiln lineage at Mikawachi. The present-day successor workshop records Imashika sei among the kiln marks used during the period of the eleventh-generation kiln head Imamura Fusataro, following the transition of the former Hirado domain kiln into private production after the Meiji Restoration. The extraordinary technical sophistication of the present vase lies in the interaction between its double-walled construction, intricate reticulation, and pictorial decoration. The outer wall was pierced before firing into a dense hexagonal lattice recalling mutsume-ami, a traditional bamboo plaiting technique in which strips cross in three directions to produce a repeating network of hexagonal openings. Mikawachi potters developed such openwork to an exceptional degree of refinement: every aperture weakened the unfired porcelain body and accelerated its drying, demanding remarkable control to prevent distortion or collapse before and during firing. Here this technical virtuosity is transformed into a remarkably sophisticated pictorial device. The two carp occupy the foremost plane, swimming across the solid passages of the outer wall, while sweeping cobalt currents bind the composition together. Behind them, the geometric lattice forms a second plane through which the separately decorated inner vessel becomes visible, its further streams and drifting cherry petals appearing recessed within the body. The result is a layered composition of unusual spatial complexity: fish, water, openwork, and inner decoration overlap and dissolve into one another, giving the impression that the carp are moving through rather than merely across the surface of the vase. The effect changes continuously as the vessel is viewed in the round. The painted decoration on the inner wall shifts behind the stationary lattice, while the sinuous contours of the water carry the eye around the body, lending the entire composition an exceptional sense of fluidity and motion. LACMA notes that the hexagonal openwork derives from Japanese basketry and may also evoke jakago, woven gabions filled with stones and traditionally used along waterways, making the pattern particularly apt for a design of carp and flowing water. Museum comparison: Compare a near-identical Hirado Mikawachi double-walled reticulated vase, likewise decorated with two carp swimming in a stream beneath blossoming cherry and also bearing an Imashika mark, dated to the early 20th century, 30 cm high, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), accession number AC1997.273.56.