Small lozenge-shaped ko-sometsuke kōgō with ox decoration

China, Jingdezhen, 17th century.
Blue and white porcelain for the Japanese market.
With its shifuku 仕覆 and wooden storage box.

Small blue and white porcelain kōgō, lozenge-shaped hishigata, with a fitted lid. The lid is painted in underglaze cobalt blue with an ox, rendered with great economy of means. The body and sides of the lid feature an oblique grid pattern, forming a tight network that accentuates the geometry of the form.

The interior is covered with a transparent glaze. The unglazed resting areas and edges show traces of use and soiling. These irregularities, visible on the contact parts and on the upper edge of the body, correspond to the material vocabulary of the ko-sometsuke made in Jingdezhen for Japanese taste.

This small box belongs to the culture of kōgō used in the tea world. Its lozenge shape, animal decoration, and deliberately free design are in line with the Japanese taste for Chinese porcelains intended for chanoyu. The subject of the ox, treated without detailed narration, gives the piece a simple and direct presence, close to the spirit of small tea objects chosen for their character rather than for their technical perfection.

The presence of a shifuku, a textile protective case closed by a cord, is an important indication of Japanese reception. It signals that the object was preserved as a tea utensil worthy of individual protection. This type of case accompanies cherished objects, transmitted and handled within a connoisseurship context.

This form belongs to the small ko-sometsuke kōgō of codified or singular forms, appreciated by tea connoisseurs and listed in the culture of katamono kōgō. Their prestige was consecrated in Japan by ancient classifications of kōgō, notably the Katamono Kōgō Banzuke, 形物香合相撲, which hierarchized the famous forms of Chinese and Japanese incense boxes used in chanoyu.

Condition: traces of use, soiling of unglazed parts, wear consistent with handling and firing of this type of porcelain.

Dimensions: height approx. 2.7 cm; width approx. 7.2 cm; depth approx. 3.7 cm.