A set of six covered soup bowls decorated with a crescent moon rising up through autumn grasses in a traditional pattern named after the Musashino planes by Ito Tozan enclosed in the original singed wooden box titled Musashino Suimonowan. They are 8.5 cm (3-1/2 inches) diameter, 8 cm (roughly the same height) tall and are in fine condition.The basic setting in Japanese food is Ichiju-Sansai or one soup, three dishes.So instead of mixing everything on one plate, each part of the meal is given its own dish.Much Japanese food is still served fresh, and so the four seasons are an indispensable factor for the table. Suimono Wan are bowls for clear soup served between parts of the meal to clean the palette.
Ito Tozan I (1846-1920) began as a painter in the Maruyama school studying under Koizumi Togaku. In 1862 he became a pupil of Kameya Kyokutei, as well as studying under Takahashi Dohachi III nd Kanzan Denshichi (who made the dishes for the imperial table). In 1867, with the fall of the Edo government, he opened his kiln in Eastern Kyoto. Much prized at home, he was also recognized abroad at the Amsterdam, Paris and Chicago World Expositions. With an emphasis on Awata and Asahi wares of Kyoto, he began to use the name Tozan around 1895. In 1917 he was named a member of the Imperial Art Academy, one of only five potters ever given that title.
Ito Tozan II (1871-1937) was born the fourth son of one of the upper level samurai of the Zeze feudal domain in Otsu, just over the mountains from Kyoto and began his artistic career as a painter. He was picked up by Tozan I and introduced to the plastic arts, where he flourished, taking over the Tozan kiln in 1920, following the death of his mentor.
