Ho-o Bird (鳳凰)
The ho-o bird (also spelled houou) is a mythical creature adapted from Chinese mythology that incorporates parts of several creatures such as the rooster, mandarin duck, peacock, crane, and pheasant. This bird was misidentified as a phoenix or a "flying turkey" by Western consumers in the early twentieth century (Ross 2012:20,23; Walter 2012:125, 129). Ho-o birds are the main decorative element on Phoenix Ware, vessels decorated with a sometsuke transferprint (染付銅板) design that were popular exports from the early 1910s until the 1930s (Van Patten 1994:60); see Phoenix Ware (鳳凰器).
Top of Ho-o Zara (Phoenix Ware dish/plate)
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