Cleveland Museum of Art

Water Container with Peonies

Seifū Yohei III

Date

1900–1914

Medium

Porcelain with molded and carved design, green glaze, and black lacquered lid

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This ceramic is an especially accomplished example of Yohei III’s combination of an allover translucent colored glaze with molded and carved designs. It features the peony as its primary motif. The water container, or mizusashi , has a green glaze, and its design takes into consideration the rounded shape and the seated position of the host and guests. It begins low on the body with a flower just beginning to open and continues with another flower a bit higher up, with its petals fully extended and beginning to open outward. It finishes with a flower in full bloom, petals and leaves unfurled and spread outward from the center, now occupying almost the entire surface. The water container once belonged to the Hosokawa family, whose go-between corresponded with Yohei IV about the piece. Yohei IV thanked them for their payment and requested that despite his father’s death in the previous year, they continue to favor the studio with their orders. The letter and its envelope, as well as an auction tag, remain with the object. This water container may also serve as a site for cultural reckoning, as when the life cycle of a flower prized in East Asia as a symbol of wealth is displayed across a Japanese chanoyu vessel whose glaze is associated with the seats of power in China and Korea.

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