This plate belongs to a dessert service with accompanying compotes that featured Japanese figures set in scenes of daily life. The solitary figure, the lizard, the owl, and the bats were each copied from separate pages in volume 13 of Hokusai’s Manga (Sketches) of 1835 and then reassembled into a new scenic composition.

The ceramics firm of J. Vieillard & Cie at Bordeaux, under the direction of Amédée de Caranza between 1878 and 1882, embraced the growing French interest in Japonisme and produced several noteworthy table services in that style, as well as vases and other decorative objects. This plate is attributed to de Caranza himself.