Journal · 手記 · Painting on a pot
Plum on one side, bamboo on the other: a painted oval by Echizen Bunzan
19 October 2026
A small oval, hand-painted: red plum on one side, bamboo on the other, on a white ground. A painted pot is not a flat picture. It is seen in turns.
At a glance
- Maker
- Echizen Bunzan 越前文山
- Region
- Echizen, Fukui
- Form
- Oval, on four feet
- Size
- 6.4 cm (2.5 in)
- Painting
- Red plum on one side, bamboo on the other, on a white ground
01 · 表 One side
Plum
Red plum blossoms with yellow centres, painted on a white ground.
02 · 裏 The other side
Bamboo
Turn the pot and the other side carries a red bamboo stem and leaves. Plum and bamboo sit on different sides, so the pot has to be turned to see both.
03 · 作家 The maker
A nursery, and pots, the same year
His nursery, Sabae Engei, opened in 1973 in Fukui. He began making pots the same year — not afterwards, but alongside it — and built his own manner inside the Echizen ware tradition already on his doorstep.
On the foot of this pot is the square kiln mark in cobalt with 文山 brushed below it — the mark described in yesterday’s note.
Available from YAKUMO JAPAN
See this pot on eBayRead further
- Echizen Bunzan 越前文山 — maker pageThe maker, his work and his marks
- A mark you can’t placeJournal, 18 October
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