The centre is painted with a phoenix, or ho-o bird, whose extensive tail completes a double circle.
The wide scalloped rim is decorated with scrolling lotus; the design executed in enamels of the Kakiemon palette, excluding yellow.
The dish is supported on three small bracket feet, 13cm in diameter.
The phoenix was thought to be a bird of exceptionally good augury, its appearance a sign that both nature and human affairs were in benign order.
