Blue and white Koransha porcelain box with hare

A porcelain box of cylindrical shape, the two parts fitting snugly together. The flat top is painted in underglaze blue with a hare, seen head on and sitting with his large ears spread out. Around the border is a row of semi circles. The sides of the box are painted with a quatrefoil diaper pattern. The slightly recessed centre of the base has a square seal mark, reading Koransha. The interior is covered in a plain white glaze. The rims of the box as well as the foot rim are unglazed. The box is contained within a fitted wood box (tomobako).

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The Koransha porcelain works were founded by the legendary Eizaemon Fukagawa in 1689. Koransha porcelain won a gold medal at almost every international exhibition the company entered: Philadelphia in 1876, Paris in 1878 and Barcelona in 1888.