Antique Pair of Kanedai Willow Plates

Pair of Kanedai red Willow plates. Occupied Japan (1945-1951) Smaller dessert size plates. 6.25” diameter. In excellent condition for their age. Please see pics. Beautiful love story that inspired the plates. The design tells the legend of two star-crossed lovers. Long ago, a father and daughter lived in a magnificent pagoda under an apple tree. Next to the pagoda was a bridge, over which drooped a willow tree, and in front of which was a graceful fence. The daughter was promised to a wealthy merchant, but she fell in love with her father’s clerk. The lovers eloped across the sea to an island cottage and when her father found them to kill them, the gods transformed them into a pair of birds.