This 19th Century Japanese blue and white painted and glazed porcelain bowl is slightly scalloped at the top.  The dainty bowl is gilded around the top and bottom rims and  has eight blue round medallions around the outside. The three medallions shown in full here have differing designs within each: one a maze like design made with right angled lines; a second, with a cow shaped figure standing in what appears to a boat, perhaps on water;  and the third, an inner circle formed of slightly separated hexagon shapes. Solid bands of contrasting blue tones encircle the inner designs. Above the rim at the bottom of the bowl, a row of contiguous pointed petal-forms jut up.  Around the outside, slightly scalloped top, a small blue bordered band bears a inscription written in small, blue decorative Japanese characters, which translated mean: A man must be industrious; from youth study hard, and by learning attain a high position. In the morning he may be a mere farmer, but by evening he may have access to the Imperial Palace.  A great statesman originally did not spring from any particular seed. Inscribed on the bottom: Ta Ming Ch’eng-hua nien chih [made in the reign Ch’eng-hua (1465-1487)]. The inside of the bowl has a lotus flower design in the center, and the bottom of the bowl has another inscription.