Antique bowl with a high board. Japan, the twentieth century.

Porcelain, overglaze painting, gilding. Satsuma workshops. Mark iron black paint.

The composition of the painting includes figured cartouches: one of them is made in the form of a sheet and located at the bottom of the bowl, the other two are placed on opposite sides of the high side on the outside of the bowl. The plot scheme of painting and ornamentation in Japanese things had, first of all, a decorative meaning, but the consciousness of the Japanese masters was inextricably linked with benevolent symbolism, which had great importance in the national culture. The bowl is decorated with butterflies. Butterflies - part of the lush summer decoration, the personification of summer.

The butterfly is a symbol of the transience of life, you need to appreciate every day.

On the central cartouche, there is a table with scrolls and brushes for writing with mascara - attributes of the upper classes that were formed. In the background are the houses, the watery surface, the mountains and among them, the symbol of Japan, the holy mountain of Fuji, complementing these idyllic pictures of life, from which emanates calm and quiet joy of a happy measured life.

At the bottom of the bowl, there is a mark in the form of hieroglyphs in a black rectangle, applied on the glaze. It means that the product is made in the workshops of Satsuma.