Plum birds soar overhead among the intricate platinum glazed designs covering this platter by the unobtainable artist Yamamoto Ichiyo enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Jun Purachina Sai Fukura Suzume (Pure Platinum Glazed Plump Sparrow).Fukura Suzume describes the appearance of sparrows in winter, who puff up to trap heat in the pockets between their feathers.Because of its appearance, it is considered an auspicious symbol of wealth. Additionally, the sparrow itself has the meaning of ``preventing misfortune,'' and has been considered a symbol of family prosperity and family safety for eons.In fact so much so that many people cultivate places for sparrows to nest in their eaves.The plate is 31 cm (12-1/4 inches) diameter and in perfect condition.
Yamamoto Ichiyo was born in Nagasaki in 1944. He began his career at an Arita Porcelain ceramic facility in 1969. In 1974 he would spend a year in Taiwan studying porcelain before returning to Japan, where he would establish his own kiln in Imari the following year. He would begin research into platinum glazing in the mid eighties, garnering awards in Paris three years running (1986, ’87, ’88) after which he would move to Takatsuki on the border between Osaka and Kyoto, where he would immerse himself in cultural studies. In 1993 he would move to Hyogo prefecture, then would begin a period where his fame would grow, while his roots in any one place did not, only returning to Imari nearly a decade later in 2001. Since his work has been exhibited throughout Japan and abroad in such places as Valencia, Los Angeles, New York and San Diego.
