Cleveland Museum of Art

Dining Bowl with Clematis

Seifū Yohei III

Date

1893–97

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze and overglaze colors, molded and incised designs

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The bowl is an especially well-executed example of Yohei III’s work in underglaze blue combined with other underglaze colors. This low-profile dining bowl has paintings of flowering clematis vines under the glaze in blue and red. Water is depicted with blue in the bottom of the bowl. The lines of white used to show motion on the water’s surface were created using either a reserve technique, where blue was omitted, or a masking technique, where parts of the surface were covered before applying the blue. A pair of butterflies flutters across one side. The foot is decorated with a pattern of spirals in blue, and the lip curves in slightly. The overall effect is one of seeing the flowering vine hanging down, hovering just above the surface of a pond, whose slight disturbances hint at unseen fish swimming below. This bowl shows an environment painted in the round.

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