Cleveland Museum of Art

Sweets Bowl with Egrets and Willow in Snow

Seifū Yohei III

Date

1912–14

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze blue and iron oxide

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

For this sweets bowl, Yohei III designed a dramatic surround of egrets in a willow tree under heavy snow. The entire design is painted in cobalt blue under the transparent glaze. If one turns the bowl clockwise, two egrets come into view, one after the other. As they ascend, both struggle against the wind amid snow-laden weeping willow branches. They are followed by a stretch of willow branches that evoke the bitter cold. The sky is painted with blue washes all around the designs. The imagery culminates in a group of three egrets huddled together in the crotch of the tree. Of course, it is also possible to read the scene in the other direction, in which case the sheltering egrets look toward one of the flying egrets, who looks back at them, and it is the egret with wings outspread, looking directly down, who concludes the scene. Two thin bands of blue set off the design just under the bowl’s rim, and a band of brown iron oxide runs along the rim. Another two bands of blue run around the middle of the foot. The inside of the bowl’s box lid has an attestation by Yohei IV that it is the work of Yohei III. This sweets bowl requires someone to rotate it to experience the birds observing one another.

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