With the brocade background, the life style of various working people is drawn in detail inside and outside the small bowl. In particular, the creator was good at writing fine character inside the vessels, so it seems that he could drew even the paintings in detail in different shapes of the inside panels. It is an interesting design among Kanazawa kutani, which boasted a large and luxurious design.

size; caliber about 7.3 cm, height about 4.8 cm

Just as Kutani Shoza (九谷庄三) and others used the motif of the surrounding rural landscape, the creator drew the working aspects of craftsmen or the people who he found inside the city (Kanazawa) and replaced by Chinese.

On the outside of the bowl, three people on walking with a companion are drawn, while rocks and thick pine trees are also drawn with fine brush strokes. It’s a mysterious combination compared to the inner design.

The back name is written as “九谷kutani / 北山堂Hokuzan-do”.

creator of the work

Takahashi Hokuzan  高橋 北山　born in 1866, died in 1936.

Takahashi was born in the family of the Kaga clan. In 1882, Hokuzan started studying porcelain painting, trained and refined his skills. He often produced works finished with gold. After that, he created kutani in various painting type by building a kiln for burning picture on the body, or asked some painters to make kutani works at the kiln.