Big in Japan

Arita and its environs in the Saga prefecture was where the great majority of Japanese blue and white porcelain was made in the 17th century. Comparing with Chinese blue and white of the same period, it currently offers extremely good value for money.

This large 51cm diameter dish decorated in underglaze cobalt blue dates to around 1700. To the front are carp leaping up a waterfall amid overhanging pines and to the reverse are gambolling shishi dogs and ribbons.

The four-character mark to the base reads Fuki Choshun (wealth, nobility, longevity and youth. It has an estimate of £400-600 at Dreweatts in Newbury on November 10.

Pair of Meiji damascene bronze and silver vases by Kashima Ippu - £25,000-35,000 at Dore & Rees.

Following the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) and the decline of the samurai class and its privileges, Japanese armour-makers instead applied their exemplary skills and artistry to develop new types of metal products.

This pair of 9in (22cm) high Meiji damascene bronze and silver vases carry the mark of Kashima Ippu (1828-1900). A master of the nunome zogan overlaying technique in particular who exhibited at the 1890 National Industrial Exposition, a landscape plaque by him is in the collection of Tokyo National Museum.

They come for sale at Dore & Rees in Frome, Somerset, on November 7 from the descendants of Joshua Neale with an estimate of £25,000-35,000.

Neale was a partner in Neale and West, a firm of Cardiff fish merchants established in 1885.

Following a friendship with a Japanese businessman, its fleet of steam trawlers were given Japanese names such as Fuji, Oku and Kyoto. During the First World War most of the vessels were taken over by the Admiralty, mainly for use as minesweepers, with seven lost to enemy action.

One of the best-known Satsuma studios, capable of the near-perfect execution, minute detail and stylistic brilliance, was that of Kinkozan Sobei.

The scion of a Kyoto dynasty of potters patronised by the shogunate for six generations, Kinkozan Sobei VI (1824-84) had successfully replaced the custom he lost following the Meiji Restoration with the burgeoning foreign trade. The studio that he passed on to his son Kinkozan Sōbei VII (1868-1927) was both the largest producer of Kyo-Satsuma and the maker of some of the finest quality Satsuma items.

This midnight-blue ground vase painted with panels of figures gathering under cherry blossoms or in a courtyard of a temple is signed with a tablet reading Kinkozan and a four-character mark Kageyama seizo. It has an estimate of £600-800 at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet on November 4.

Chestnut-form box and cover with chestnut-shaped ojime and netsuke by Shibata Zeshin - £5000-6000 at Bonhams.

Bonhams’ November 3 sale titled Patient Detail, Perfect Design: Japanese Art across the Centuries features more than 400 lots in a wide variety of media and styles. The painstaking craft of maki-e – the sprinkling of precious metal flakes and powders onto lacquer - is represented by several dozen pieces.

This miniature chestnut-form box and cover with chestnut-shaped ojime and netsuke is by Shibata Zeshin (1807-91), widely considered the greatest lacquer artist of all time. The box (either for tobacco or used as an inro) would have been worn from a belt with the shaped ojime and netsuke acting as a securing toggle.

Estimate £5000-6000.

Roseberys’ sale of Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art on November 8-9 includes this pair of 4½in (12cm)  vases made by the workshop of the master cloisonné artist Hayashi Kodenji.

Cloisonné is easily damaged, so it is rare to find vases in this condition, almost perfectly preserved in silk-lined boxes for much of their lives. Both vases, finely decorated in gold and silver wire with a bird amid bamboo sprays, on a dark blue ground, are signed to the bases.

Estimate £3000-5000.