Japanese porcelain bowl, Japan, Late Edo to Meiji period, 19th century

Japanese porcelain bowl
Japan
Late Edo to Meiji period, 19th century
Blue and white imari bowl with depiction of a crane in medallion inside and landscape scene on the outside
Diameter 17 cm, height 7 cm

The hemispherical bowl with a wavy rim is decorated on the outside with a stylized southern Chinese landscape modeled on early Qing Dynasty designs, and on the underside there is a fleetingly thrown illegible mark modeled on Chinese period stamps. The inside is clearly more "Japanese" with the stylized Manchurian crane and the border in shonsui pattern. Deliberate chinoiseries that went beyond commercial imitation of Chinese models were extremely popular among educated Japanese toward the end of the Edo period, especially in the context of the literary scene and sencha tea culture.