Plate with hair-dressing scene

The decoration applied all over this Arita plate by the painter depicts two beauties doing their hair. The seated beauty with a fan wears a kimono with motifs of maple leaves in the waves, while her maid is dressed in a kimono with a motif of plovers above the waves. A table with cups and chopsticks stands in front of the figures, while two wicker curtains with ribbons hang above them. The rich shades of the enamels suggest the plate was made in the later Edo period, when the colour range employed by painters in Arita and its surroundings changed somewhat. In this period, motifs of the “fleeting nature” of the world of entertainment, tea rooms and brothels regained their popularity; the painters used wood block prints by the painting school ukiyo-e as models. (See Filip Suchomel – Marcela Suchomelová, Mistrovská díla japonského porcelánu, Praha 1997, pp. 162–163.)