24K Gold Kintsugi Ko-Imari Plate | A Branch Among Camellias

Camellias Drawn in Line Ko-Imari porcelain belongs to the golden age of Japanese export ware, when kilns near Arita sent blue-and-white porcelain across the seas. This namasu-zara, a small dish for dressed vegetables, is painted by hand in sometsuke cobalt using sengaki, a line-drawing technique that leaves the white porcelain open between each stroke. Large camellias encircle a roundel of pine, bamboo and plum within a foliated rim. Crossing the Roundel Broken into three pieces with a chipped rim, the plate was restored over four months by Rio Hashimoto, a lacquer artist with a Master’s degree in Lacquer Arts from Kyoto City University of Arts and recipient of an international art award. She rejoined the fragments in layers of natural urushi, applied 24K gold powder in traditional maki-e, and finished both sides through roiro, the highest grade of urushi finishing, giving the gold a smooth, deep luster; the plate remains food-safe. One seam enters from the rim, crosses the pine-and-plum roundel and divides toward the right, then continues over the brushwork and across the foot on the reverse. The Roundel Holds Two living Japanese traditions meet in this plate: the sometsuke porcelain of Ko-Imari and the urushi craft of authentic kintsugi. Traced in gold, the fracture reads almost like another branch among the camellias as it passes through the pine-and-plum roundel—a line no other plate could carry, because this break belongs to this one alone. To welcome it into your collection is to become the next custodian of both crafts and carry their story into a new home.