Antique Japanese Arita Porcelain Dish with figures 8 Tigrams Edo period Japan

Out of stock

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Condition Report: kintsugi filled hairline and 1 small chip/frit to 1 of the edges. Size 219x39mm DiameterxHeight

A lovely piece.  With central scene of two figures standing in a Pagode house. The border with the 8 Tigrams. Most probably 18c, maybe slightly earlier.

The principle of yin and yang, which generates everything in the cosmos, is also represented by the Eight Trigrams, bagua. Continuous straight lines, yang, are combined with broken lines, yin. Three unbroken lines represent heaven, qian, three broken lines represent earth, kun. The intermediary stages in the cycle from yin to yang form eight basic trigrams. Each has a special meaning and is associated with a colour, an animal or a natural force.

Among them, qian and kun, heaven and earth, are considered the source of everything in the natural world and human society, evolution and cyclical changes.

Paring these eight trigrams they create sixty-four hexagrams, in Chinese traditional belief the principle of all things, basis for science, medicine and divination. The Chinese classic of divination, Yijing (Book of Changes), dates back to the seventh century BC. It is based on these sixty-four hexagrams made up of yin and yang.

It is said that the legendary emperor Fu Xi of the third millennium BC invented this system, and later the Daoists adapted and developed the idea in their classics.

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