Japanese Early 20th Century Export Plate? Identification of Mark and Era?

[Kaaren B.]

I found three of these plates together. Porcelain is translucent - the dark blue of the outer border shows through on the reverse side. The eight figures inside the fan: are those the Eight Scholars and Poets?

I could not identify the mark, although I thought I saw the Made By character.

Any ID on the mark, and the era? I am guessing first 20 years of the 20th century.

Thanks, as always! KB

[Stan]

Hi Kaaren, You got me stumped on this one, the mark is illegible, sometimes the mark was scribbled on and that makes it hard to tell, I agree with you on age 1st quarter of the 20th century, Taisho period I would think. 

[peterp]

Hi Stan,

I have already looked at the mark but thought you might identify it. I cannot identify the first character, but I think the second is 'shima' 島.

This is normally written as  山 + 鳥, whereas these two are combined top - down to one character. However, here these are written left - right. I don't think there is another Kanji character like this, thus it must be 'shima', which is frequently used in names.
Do you have any idea what kiln or manufacturer that could be from? This way I could try to find the other part of the name.

[Kaaren B.]

Thank you both, looking forward, hopefully, to more info.

I tried very hard to look the mark up, but the closest I could get was hichozan shinpo, and as I couldn't see the "zan" mark as Adept did, I thought I must be wrong.

[peterp]

山  means 'mountain, mount'  鳥 means 'bird', combined as 島 this means 'island', which is frequently used in Japanese names.

And no, I tried to find the first character via character dictionaries and an online name list. Could not find it. The problem is that both the left and right side of the character are written badly.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, you are right Shima seems to be the lower mark, it is in my book, but it is listed as shima-mura,  and under wood and ivory carvings, that could be why I could not find it, thanks.

[Kaaren B.]

Well, all, I took a chance after reading the last reply, and googled shimamura. I found several artists by that  name. One, Naomi Shimamura, is a modern artist, her pottery is nothing like this.

However, I found one plate for sale on Ebay, not unlike mine in the images and scalloped border, except for having moriage work. It was accompanied by this description from the seller:

"Shingo Shimamura Was a Company in Japan Which Had a Few Studios in Yokohama And Also in US in Atlantic City. The Company Had Great Success in Trade Fair in Chicago in 1904 Became Very Famous. The Company Closed in Early 1920s. Therefore almost all their pieces are 100 years old extremely valuable."

Then I googled shimamura-sei and found this very interesting information:

"Shingo Shimamura was a decorating shop in Kyoto. It specialized in the mass production of export ware for which there was no domestic market in Japan. The studio was doubtless like the hundreds of others in Kyoto, little more than a shop employing young paintresses with good eyesight and a steady hand. These shops produced every conceivable type of Japanese ceramic decoration under one roof, from Kutani to Imari to Satsuma style decorated porcelain to moriage encrusted Nippon ware.

Shimamura opened a store selling Japanese imports in Atlantic City, (New Jersey) in 1888. He was also an active participant at the World Trade Fair of Chicago in 1904, where he exhibited expertly made porcelain with lavish moriage slip decoration on eggshell porcelain that was particularly well received by the American public."

And this:

". . . Not a lot is known about the Shimamura decorating shop in Kyoto [in fact there are virtually no surviving records for any of the ceramic decorating that was done for the export market]. It specialized in the mass production of export ware for which there was no domestic market in Japan, indeed most Japanese at the time were unaware of the style and extent of what was being manufactured for export. The studio was doubtless like the hundreds of others in Kyoto, little more than a sweat shop employing young paintresses with good eyesight and a steady hand, some of whom would have been no more than eight or nine years old."

According to these notes, production ceased in early 1920s. If my plate as we believe is first quarter pf 20th century, this would fit.

And, of course, this is one of three plates that I picked up for $12 for all three at one my best-kept secrets for unexpected finds: the ReStore of Habitat for Humanity, whose sales support its very worthy work.

What do we think? Kaaren

[Stan]

Well that is Great Kaaren, It is possible, it would be nice to find something with the same mark as yours, that could lead to the meaning of the top character, thanks so much for sharing a little history on Shimamura.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, could the first Character be Sei or Seisu mark, looking in my book it shows several examples of the Sei mark and some are so close you can't tell them apart.

[Kaaren B.]

Many of the things on sale on the Internet are listed as "Shimamura Sei".

And re the Atlantic City, NJ connection - the Habitat for Humanity that I drop into every few weeks to see what's new (I got some fabulous 19th century Flow Blue ironstone there recently, W.E. Corn and J. Clementson), where I got these three plates, is IN Westwood, NJ.

How funny if it wasn't "export" at all, but was made next door?!

I dunno, the case looks ever stronger for this, no?

I haven't figured out how to copy marks on someone else's photo but I'll try.

[peterp]

Stan, not sure what you mean with Sei, Seisu. This Romaji transcription can have too many characters.  I would need to see the actual character(s).Japanese uses only a bit less than 2000 Kanji in the general language, and some 100 more used for names only.I found a character that resembled this one, but trying to find it via Japanese search engine brought no result in combination with 'shima'. There was no name with that character. If you see something similar, please send it to me or post it.

[peterp]

Kaaren,
Shimamura is a common Japanese name, but you cannot go and put the second part of a name to the front just to identify someone. The 'shima' part should be the second character reading, not the first.
I'm afraid there is no way to find anyone with 'shima', even in Japanese on the Japanese Internet, except perhaps if it is known where the person or kiln is located. Both shima and mura are appearing in too many names.   :)

[Kaaren B.]

Ah, I see. Well, this comes under the heading of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

I never looked at the back of the other two plates, this was just the one on the top so I hung that up and put the other two away. Perhaps there is a clearer mark under one of the others. I'll check. K.

[Kaaren B.]

Well, call me careless!

I just slid the top plate off when I got home, hung it up on the wall in my Asian section, and put the other two plates away without looking at the backs.

When I pulled them out and turned them over today, the other two plates shared a very different looking mark.

I feel really stupid. Here is the mark that appears on the backs of the other two plates, which all have the same picture, although you can see little differences if you look closely.

Does this mark help any? Thanks, Kaaren

[peterp]

That is the mark, but there is still a problem. I believe we know the right and top left character part, but not completely sure about the lower left. Tried to find it via character dictioniaries, but could not find the character, even in a more voluminous Chinese character book. It may be just a rare Japanese name. We just cannot search and find the character as usual. And we do not the reading in this case.