Colorful, intricately, hand potted and painted Imari plates with interesting paintings of Mount Fuji, pines, cranes, cherry blossoms and large medallions of underglaze blue painted kirins.Heavy hand thrown porcelain plates with rounded foliate rims. Each plate has two repeating panels of Mount Fuji with pines and cranes flying overhead. The central roundels are of Kirin with clouds. The center has a border of cherry blossoms. There are cobalt rings at the rim, and around the foot. The backs of the plates have under glaze designs of leaves and lozenges.The cobalt is a nice deep smoky blue. The polychrome designs use iron red, yellow, green, gray, and blue. Black has been used to outline and accent. The red has a smooth feel, rather than the dry feel typical in later porcelains.You can see the pottera€?s wheel marks and chatter marks under the glaze on the base. The plates have shallow unglazed foot rings. The bases are glazed. There is a circular mark in under glaze blue in the center of the base on both plates. The glaze on the plates has a slight bluish tint and is thick, smooth and looks shiny.MEASUREMENTS Each plate measures 8 ??a€ (21.6 cm) diameter x 1 3/8a€ (3.5 cm) tall. Total weigh 1 lb 15.7 oz (895 g)CONDITION The plates have no breaks, or cracks. One plate has a tiny rim chip. You feel it more than you see it. There are wear scratches in the center of both plates. There are glaze losses on the iron red of both plates. The little red bushes show glaze losses. There are losses on the red glaze panels that have pine branches. One grey tree trunk has enamel loss. There are kiln flaws such as black dots, pimples, and reserve spots. These plates show much age.An early pair of colored Imari plates with wonderful deep cobalt paintings of Kirin. They remind me of the early Meissen porcelains with Japanese designs and colors. The paintings on the plates have that open airy feeling.Item ID: Por-1837