KENZAN SCHOOL Large Bowl with Overglaze Enamel Paintings. The bowl is covered with a crazed (crackled) glaze. Ceramics are known for painted decorations as in this bowl. Surrounding & inside the bowl are Buddhist sages accompanied by 2 tigers & a dragon. A couple of the sages are depicted reading Buddhist texts. Kenzan’s signature appears on the side of the bowl in a break between the figures. The page of Kenzan signatures is from the catalog: Wilson, Richard L. The Potter’s Brush : The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2001, pg. There are a couple of small chips in the rim near the dragon’s nose. These are normal & not uncommon for a stoneware piece of this age.