Catalog: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese: Stoneware (3)

An unusual Bizen stoneware figural group depicting three sages with attributes in clouds in a stele formation. One with wheat and sword flanked by attendants, one also with wheat and sword and the other with a palm frond or banana leaf fan. The figures' attire and swords are Chinese in manner (as are many sages and deities in Japanese lore adopted from the Chinese.) It may be a less often seen interpretation of Daikoku considering the wheat and sword attributes and the attnedants (a common attendant of Daikoku being Ebisu.) Inscriptions on the back appear to relate to the figures. An impressed Bizen pottery mark in cartouche on the base. Good condition. Height, about 7 1/8 inches (18.1 cm)

A Bizen stoneware figural study of Daikokuten with attributes including full face, large earlobes, smile, hat, bag of rice and mallet. Impressed signature cartouche. Good condition. Height, about 7 1/2 inches (19.05 cm). Length about 8 inches (20.32 cm).

An Edo period Oribe sake bottle of simple but full proportions and with classically Japanese Zen decoration - austerely yet sensitively placed grass and blooms decoration in iron oxide on the softly crackled opaque off-white glaze ever so slightly scorched in the kiln on two sides where the body is almost slightly exposed and oxidized to a buff tone at those points. The cut foot also glazed save for a crescent reserve around the center where the warm gray body is exposed. The rim and neck glazed green with tinges leaning bluer and oxidizing to a reddish-brown where the glaze has pooled - all with a very slight hint of iridescence to the finely crazed glazed. Five, parallel incised rings around the shoulder before transitioning to the oatmeal colored opaque walls. Anonymous. Good condition. Height 7 inches.