Cleveland Museum of Art

Tea Set with Chinese Landscapes

Seifū Yohei III

Date

1893–1914

Medium

Tea set with tea pot, hot water cooler, and five cups; porcelain with underglaze blue

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The theme of this sencha tea set is the Chinese scholar-recluse in an idyllic landscape. The teapot depicts two friends playing a board game on a promontory beyond a two-storied residence, while another figure comes across the entry bridge bearing bags of provisions, hung from the ends of a pole balanced across his shoulders. The kidney-shaped water cooler has a scene of a man gazing at a full moon in a dramatic mountain-scape stretching before a large compound in the woods. Another man, hunched over and carrying a heavy parcel tied to a pole over his shoulder, struggles to make his way up a hill to the site. The cooler also has a pair of applied nyoi staff-head forms for resting the tips of one’s thumb and index finger, like those on the water cooler with pine trees (see [19 ]). Each of the five teacups has a landscape with an architectural structure and some human activity. One cup shows a man with a staff walking away from a residence toward a boat, loaded with what might be a musical instrument wrapped for travel. A second cup shows a man rowing a little skiff, which disturbs the otherwise still water. Behind him in the distance is an open-air pavilion. He is making his way toward a pair of figures playing a board game, much like the scene on the teapot. Down the hill from them is a residence; beyond this, a flock of geese approaches through the sky. A third cup shows a man in a traveling robe leaning upon his staff as he crosses a bridge to reach a two-story building with a pitched roof, possibly a temple, set between trees. Past this structure, another man sits fishing in a boat. A fourth cup shows a humbly dressed man with a broad-brimmed hat lugging a package tied to the end of a rod slung over his shoulder. In front of him is a two-story building flanked by deciduous trees and a man resting against the side of a sturdy stone bridge as he looks at a residence, or perhaps a set of roofed gates, further up the path. The last cup has a man walking toward a group of three pavilions announced with a banner hanging from a tall post; beyond this are two large deciduous trees sheltering a stand of small conifers. Across the water from this site is another man sitting on the bank fishing with a large woven basket for his catch beside him. Images of famous sencha events that shows that these kinds of porcelains fit with objects, such as a stove and kettle, to form a complete set of utensils for tea preparation, and with ensembles of decorative objects meant to inspire creativity.

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