Cleveland Museum of Art

Bowl with Dragon Roundels

Seifū Yohei IIILinkedCulture matchlcp-76f8f3f7462b

Date

1897–1914

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze blue, iron oxide, and yellow glaze

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Object ID

447712

While this bowl has no box, it is attributed to Yohei III based in part on the style of the signature on its base. Below the rim, the bowl’s interior has a ring of clouds in underglaze blue. On the outside, bright yellow is combined with roundels of dragons capturing flaming jewels, painted under the glaze in blue, while the inside has a single dragon roundel in underglaze blue against a white ground. The work’s bold decorative scheme is more in keeping with what might be expected from the high-output studio of Miyagawa Kozan in Yokohama, whose products were designed for mass appeal. A similar bowl is in the collection of the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo. Seifū Yohei III was inspired by the Chinese mythical animals and motifs with magical symbolism—including clouds and fungi—that were common on porcelain objects made at Jingdezhen in China during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and then exported around the world.

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