Antique Japanese Blue & White Porcelain Plate Shanshui Landscape Scalloped Rim 14"W

Antique Japanese Blue & White Porcelain Plate Shanshui Landscape Scalloped Rim 14"W

Japanese sometsuke porcelain plate, shanshui mountain river landscape with riverside pavilion, scalloped rim, Meiji period

Japan; Meiji period, late 19th–early 20th century

A large Japanese sometsuke (染付) blue and white porcelain plate with a gently scalloped rim and broad shallow well, decorated with an expansive shanshui (山水) landscape composition painted in soft, graduated cobalt washes of considerable delicacy. The scene presents mountain peaks in the middle and far distance, a riverside pavilion set among bare winter trees in the foreground, and an open body of water carrying the eye through the composition. The variation in wash intensity — from near-white mist in the sky to dense cobalt in the foreground rock forms — gives the painting an atmospheric quality closer to ink-on-paper work than to the more schematic decoration typical of commercial Meiji ware. The reverse carries a loose floral spray and a plain unglazed foot ring.

The shanshui tradition, rooted in the Chinese scholarly painting canon and absorbed deeply into Japanese decorative vocabulary, was applied across the full range of blue and white production from the most refined Edo-period Nabeshima ware to everyday Meiji commercial plates. The washy, recession-conscious handling visible here places this example toward the more accomplished end of that range.

• Form: Sometsuke porcelain plate, scalloped rim, shallow well
• Decoration: Shanshui mountain river landscape with pavilion and winter trees in underglaze cobalt blue; floral spray to reverse
• Mark: None
• Period: Meiji, late 19th–early 20th century
• Dimensions: 14″W × 1.5″H (35.5 × 3.8 cm)
• Condition: Light surface wear and age marks consistent with period use; minor kiln imperfections to rim edge; no chips or cracks. Please see photos for details.
• Flags: Confirm foot ring condition in hand; scalloped rim — check for chips at points.