A Hirado porcelain koro on a tall stem, with a white dragon coiled in high relief around the stem and a square base painted in underglaze blue with clouds and flowing scrolls. The round body is pierced with large openwork panels centred on chrysanthemums, the domed cover is pierced all over, and a fitted liner inside held the incense. Once lit, the smoke drifted out through the openwork above the dragon, giving him real clouds to go with the painted ones below.
Piercing porcelain this cleanly without the panels sagging in the kiln was one of the things Hirado was known for. The Mikawachi kilns spent their first two centuries working mainly for the lords of Hirado, and those standards carried through into the Meiji period, when this koro was made around 1880.
Condition notes
Excellent condition with no visible damage or restoration. The openwork is intact throughout and the dragon’s modelling is fully preserved. The visible joint between the upper body and the stem is a manufacturing feature, not damage: the two parts were made separately and joined before firing, as on comparable examples. Small superficial firing marks on the ribbed section of the stem are not cracks. Under UV light they do not extend into the porcelain and are consistent with minor kiln effects.
