Cleveland Museum of Art

Sweets Bowl with Plum Tree

Seifū Yohei IV

Date

1914–46

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze color and modeled design

Culture

Japan, Taishō period (1912–26) to Shōwa period (1926–89)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In Chinese culture, the plum symbolizes the virtue of perseverance. For his sweets bowl based on Qing dynasty (1644–1911) Chinese prototypes, Seifū Yohei IV first painted the gnarled boughs of a plum tree in iron oxide on the surface. Then he made the tree’s blossoms slightly raised by building up slip, or liquified clay. He painted their centers yellow. Before applying the blue glaze, he covered the blossoms with paper so that they remained white. Broad access to high-quality Chinese ceramics occasioned by the collapse of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) and the dispersal of elite Chinese collections presented Seifū Yohei IV with models for both molded decoration and painted motifs.

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