Unknown
Desk Screen in the Form of Sun and Waves with Designs of a Dragon and the Married Islands of Futamigaurasecond half of 19th century

Not on view

Small blue-and-white porcelain object with a flat circular disk painted with a cobalt dragon, rising from a sculpted, three-dimensional base of celadon and cobalt ocean waves

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Desk Screen in the Form of Sun and Waves with Designs of a Dragon and the Married Islands of Futamigaura
Place Made: Japan
Date Made: second half of 19th century
Period: Edo period (1603-1868) or Meiji period (1868-1912)
Medium: Hirado Mikawachi ware; porcelain with underglaze blue
Dimensions: 5 1/8 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (13 x 14 x 3.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Allan and Maxine Kurtzman
Accession Number: AC1997.273.52
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: According to the tenets of Chinese Confucianism, poetry, calligraphy, and painting were requisite skills of a cultured and scholarly individual. In Japan, Confucianism fostered interest in Chinese literati culture and the adoption of Chinese-style furnishings such as desk arrangements and writing implements. Brushes were placed on rests or in a holder (M.2001.193.7) or box. Paperweights were employed to hold a book open or keep papers from being disturbed by a breeze. Water droppers (AC1997.273.47) were used to drip water onto an inkstone, where it was then mixed with carefully ground ink. Desk screens protected the ink from dust and prevented it from splattering on the desk. Decorative motifs on screens, typically related to scholarly activities or virtues, provided imagery for inspiration and contemplation.

Though it was not uncommon for the front and back of a desk screen to bear the same design, in many cases the imagery was different. Here, one side of the disk is decorated with a scene of Sakurai Futamigaura, a pair of large rocks located off the coast of Itoshima Peninsula on the island of Kyūshū. Roughly 37 feet tall and joined by a sacred rope (shimenawa), the rocks are part of the nearby Sakurai Shrine and are revered as a sacred place dedicated to two deities from Japan’s creation mythology. It is said that these deities live in the rocks and that the shimenawa denotes their connection. Known as the Meoto Iwa (married rocks), the scene came to symbolize marital bliss and the bond between husband and wife.

The shimenawa is also said to mark the entrance to the undersea Dragon Palace, the place where the gods reside. Dragons live in the water and preside over the heavens. The other side of this screen is rendered with a three-clawed dragon, a mythical beast associated with water, rain, storms, and clouds. The dragon rises above the waves carrying the jewel with which it rules the tides.

2025
Selected Bibliography: Singer, Robert; Hollis Goodall. Hirado Porcelain of Japan: From the Kurtzman Family Collection.
Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997.

Unknown
Desk Screen in the Form of Sun and Waves with Designs of a Dragon and the Married Islands of Futamigaurasecond half of 19th century

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Desk Screen in the Form of Sun and Waves with Designs of a Dragon and the Married Islands of Futamigaura
Place Made: Japan
Date Made: second half of 19th century
Period: Edo period (1603-1868) or Meiji period (1868-1912)
Medium: Hirado Mikawachi ware; porcelain with underglaze blue
Dimensions: 5 1/8 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (13 x 14 x 3.3 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Allan and Maxine Kurtzman
Accession Number: AC1997.273.52
Classification: Ceramics
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: According to the tenets of Chinese Confucianism, poetry, calligraphy, and painting were requisite skills of a cultured and scholarly individual. In Japan, Confucianism fostered interest in Chinese literati culture and the adoption of Chinese-style furnishings such as desk arrangements and writing implements. Brushes were placed on rests or in a holder (M.2001.193.7) or box. Paperweights were employed to hold a book open or keep papers from being disturbed by a breeze. Water droppers (AC1997.273.47) were used to drip water onto an inkstone, where it was then mixed with carefully ground ink. Desk screens protected the ink from dust and prevented it from splattering on the desk. Decorative motifs on screens, typically related to scholarly activities or virtues, provided imagery for inspiration and contemplation.

Though it was not uncommon for the front and back of a desk screen to bear the same design, in many cases the imagery was different. Here, one side of the disk is decorated with a scene of Sakurai Futamigaura, a pair of large rocks located off the coast of Itoshima Peninsula on the island of Kyūshū. Roughly 37 feet tall and joined by a sacred rope (shimenawa), the rocks are part of the nearby Sakurai Shrine and are revered as a sacred place dedicated to two deities from Japan’s creation mythology. It is said that these deities live in the rocks and that the shimenawa denotes their connection. Known as the Meoto Iwa (married rocks), the scene came to symbolize marital bliss and the bond between husband and wife.

The shimenawa is also said to mark the entrance to the undersea Dragon Palace, the place where the gods reside. Dragons live in the water and preside over the heavens. The other side of this screen is rendered with a three-clawed dragon, a mythical beast associated with water, rain, storms, and clouds. The dragon rises above the waves carrying the jewel with which it rules the tides.

2025
Selected Bibliography: Singer, Robert; Hollis Goodall. Hirado Porcelain of Japan: From the Kurtzman Family Collection.
Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997.