Porcelain dish titled Dawn
- Audio guide stop: 597
- Gallery: Room 94
- Maker: Tokuda Yasokichi III
- Culture: Heisei Era
- Made in: Ishikawa-ken
- Date: September 1992
- Object type: dish, storage box
- Materials: porcelain
- Museum number: 1993,0130.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a vibrant porcelain dish titled "Reimei," which means "Dawn." Crafted by Tokuda Yasokichi III, this circular dish is glazed in shimmering blue, green, and yellow, giving the glazes a fluid, almost liquid appearance.
The dish is part of the Kutani ceramic tradition from Ishikawa Prefecture, where a rich pottery history has existed since the mid-1600s. Tokuda used these traditional glazes to achieve a fresh and modern design. The piece is housed in a decorative storage box with a carved paulownia pattern.
The dish was made in September 1992 and bears a maker's mark on the base. Above the box lid, it is inscribed with the words "Glazed dish. Dawn. Yasokichi of Kutani." In 1997, Tokuda was honored as a Living National Treasure for his mastery of colorful porcelain glazes and the Kutani style.
See it in person
Porcelain dish titled Dawn is on display in Room 94 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 597, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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