TWO PORCELAIN DISHES WITH CHERRY BLOSSOM AND CLOUD DESIGN

Hizen ware, Nabeshima type; porcelain with underglaze blue, overglaze iron red, and colored enamels
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868), Hōei/Shōtoku eras, 1704−16
Each 8 in. (20.3 cm) diameter approx.
Provenance: James Alexander Scrymser (1839−1918), acquired in Japan in either 1898 or 1899, and thence by descent

This pair of dishes on a raised ring foot is decorated in underglaze blue, a pale blue wash, green and yellow enamels, and iron red, with a design of a wind-blown spray of cherry and a stylized cloud. The exterior of the dishes displays the classic Nabeshima Chinese-cash and the foot comb-tooth design: three groupings of six linked coins on the body and a comb pattern circling the raised foot. Many of the designs in Nabeshima ware were inspired by the local flora around the Ōkawachiyama, where the official kiln site was located. Blooming cherry represents spring, renewal, and death, as well as being a potent symbol for Japan itself. As such, several cherry blossom-themed designs for dishes are known, of which Japanese scholars consider the present pattern to be one of the most successful and representative of the mature period of Nabeshima porcelain production.¹ 
These dishes were once owned by James Scrymser, a nineteenth-century American entrepreneur who made his first fortune promoting and laying cable connections between Cuba and Florida. He developed cable and later telegraph connections between Latin America and the United States, competing strongly with British companies engaged in similar businesses. In the autumn of 1898, he was invited by the Meiji government to visit Japan to discuss the feasibility of laying undersea cables between Japan and the West Coast of America. He returned in the spring of 1899. He is thought to have acquired these dishes at the time, either through purchase or possibly as an official gift. The dishes subsequently passed down through descendants from whom they were acquired.

1. Imaizumi Motosuke, Iro Nabeshima to Matsugatani (Colored Nabeshima and Matsugatani Wares). (Tokyo: Yuzankaku, 1966), pl. 109, p. 198.