A Nabeshima Dish

Nabeshima ware is generally considered to be the finest porcelain made in pre-modern Japan both for its supreme technical accomplishment and for its clarity, precision and cool elegance of design. An official product of the Saga fief in Hizen province, it was created for diplomatic gifts to the shogun and other feudal lords, and for domestic use by the Nabeshima family. It is generally believed that the initial Nabeshima family-sponsored kiln was built in the 1630s at Iwayakawachi in Arita, the epicentre of early porcelain production. Following a transitional phase during which the kiln was probably located at Nangawarayama, production was eventually moved to Okawachi in 1675 and placed under the direct control of the Nabeshima bureaucracy. It was then that the manufacture of fully-fledged Nabeshima ware began.

A similar example is in the collection of The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art.