A Kenzan square earthenware dish | Edo period, 18th century

Kenzan often selected excerpts from some of the most popular Chinese poetry anthologies of his day for the poems on his wares. He frequently referred to the anthology Yuanji houfa (Practical Knacks and Workable Methods; Enki kappo in Japanese), which was alleged to have been compiled by the Ming poet Wang Shizhen (1526-1590). The anthology includes poems by Tu Fu (712-70) among others.¹ Here, an excerpt from one of Tu Fu poems is inscribed to the right half of the dish, which reads:

Ame aratte kenken toshite kiyoku kaze fuite saisai toshite kanbashi

雨洗娟々浄風吹細々香

The poem can be roughly translated as:

They rustle in the wind

light and delicate leaves of bamboo

washed by the rain

As well as the elements purifying the fresh leaves of bamboo, there is a sense that the deeper meaning of the poem infers that the mundanity of the secular world is also being cleansed .²

For an example of rectangular dish inscribed with the same poem, see Frank Feltens, Ogata Kōrin: Art in Early Modern Japan, (New Haven, 2022), fig. 112, no. 157.

For a further example of a square dish decorated in brushed iron with the same poetic inscription, see Richard L. Wilson, ‘Iconography of Kenzan: Chinese Poetic Themes (2): Flowering Plants and Trees’ (Kenzan-yaki gan youshiki no kenkyu (2): kusabana, chikuboku, sono hoka), in the ICU Humanities Journal , vol. 48 (2016), pg. 88.

1. Frank Feltens, Ogata Kōrin: Art in Early Modern Japan, (New Haven, 2022), fig. 112, no. 157.

2. Richard L. Wilson, ‘Iconography of Kenzan: Chinese Poetic Themes (2): Flowering Plants and Trees’ (Kenzan-yaki gan youshiki no kenkyu (2): kusabana, chikuboku, sono hoka), ICU Humanities Journal vol. 48 (2016), pg. 88.