Bottle for tea leaves “chatsubo” decorated with figures of playing children

The body of this tsubo jar bears two painted Chinese children with a leashed tiger and a table under a willow tree in a landscape. In the background, we can see a mountain ridge, while the other side shows a miniature rock with a pine tree. The upper part bears a depiction of Chinese grass karakusa and a comb pattern. This jar’s decoration is based on Chinese models supplied to Arita by Dutch traders in the first contacts between the ceramists and the Europeans. However, there are clear deviations from the originals in the decorative composition and execution. Arita potters always stylized decoration more elaborately, giving it an obviously different emotive charge than what we are used to in more realistic Chinese patterns. (See Filip Suchomel – Marcela Suchomelová, Mistrovská díla japonského porcelánu, Praha 1997, p. 70.)