An Edo period plate from the Kiln of Hiraga Gennai enclosed in a period wood box decorated with typical green and white designs. It is 25.5 x 4.8 cm (10 x 2 inches). There is a firing flaw and to the right of the figures, and a hairline crack along the foot ring in the bottom center of the scene.
Gennai Yaki, known for its bright coloring, originated during the Horeki era (1751 – 1764) in Shido, Sanuki Province (mod. Kagawa prefecture) when Hiraga Gennai (1728-1780) a scientist and intellectual developed a process based on the Cochin ware style of China. Gennai was typically decorated with bold designs with green and yellow glazes. The style was developed by Gennai, and the wares were produced mostly by his apprentice Wakita Gengo, who used the name of “Shunmin,” (resulting in another name for the pottery style, Shunmin-yaki). Yashima ware from the same area is a type of earthenware descending from Gennai ware.
Hiraga Gennai was a Japanese polymath and Rōnin (Masterless Samurai) of the later Edo period. His birth name was Shiraishi Kunitomo, but he later used numerous pen names,. He is best known by the name Hiraga Gennai. He was a pharmacologist, student of Rangaku (Dutch studies), physician, author, painter and inventor well known for his Erekiteru (electrostatic generator), Kandankei (thermometer) and Kakanpu (asbestos cloth). Gennai composed several works of literature, including the fictional satires Fūryū Shidōken den (1763), the Nenashigusa (1763) and the Nenashigusa kohen (1768), as well as the satirical essays On Farting and A Lousy Journey of Love.
