This small Kutani porcelain figurine depicts a seated, meditating Buddha, decorated in raised moriage enamelling across red, blue, brown, and green in a floral pattern that builds up in relief rather than sitting flat against the surface. Partial gilding picks out further detail, and the whole thing rests on an expression carved with more restraint than the decoration around it — calm where the enamelling is busy, which is presumably the point.
Kutani ware has been produced in the Kaga region of Japan since the seventeenth century, though the style seen here — dense, colourful enamel work aimed squarely at Western export tastes — belongs to the Meiji period expansion of the industry, when Kutani workshops scaled up production for buyers abroad who couldn't get enough of it. The base carries a painted mark reading "Dai Nippon Tsukuru," made in Japan by Tsukuru, one of the export marks used during this period to signal origin to overseas buyers.
Condition notes
Great antique condition. Some wear to gilt and red enamel commensurate with age.
