24K Gold Kintsugi Ko-Imari Plate | A River Over Peaks

A Shell Carrying Mountains Ko-Imari porcelain dates to the golden age of Japanese export ware. During this time, kilns around Arita shipped blue-and-white porcelain through the port of Imari. Shaped like an abalone shell, this plate has a scalloped rim and a whorl at one end. Inside is a sometsuke landscape of mountains, pines, and sailing boats alongside four lines of classical Chinese verse, framed by a scrollwork border. From Buddhist Sculpture to Porcelain Keiko Hata restored this broken plate over four months. A lacquer artist who holds a Master's degree in Lacquer Arts from Kyoto City University of Arts, she also conserves Buddhist sculpture. Using food-safe natural urushi, she rejoined the fragments and rebuilt the damaged areas in cured, polished layers. She then sprinkled 24K marufun (spherical gold powder) over the restored areas in the maki-e manner and sealed it with a thin coat of raw urushi, forming one durable layer. The work ends in roiro, an exacting hand-polish that draws out the gold's rich, deep luster. Poetry in Gold The painter fitted mountains, pines, sailing boats and four lines of Chinese verse into an abalone-shaped plate. Now 24K gold flows through the scene like a river seen from above, crossing the verse. Where pieces were missing, Hata rebuilt them so that the picture reads as a whole without concealing its history. Food-safe, the plate is as suitable for the table as for display. Her kintsugi sits beside her own urushi work and her conservation practice, and this plate carries all of that onward: Imari's export trade, the urushi artistry laid over it, and the patience of the months it took.