Cleveland Museum of Art

High-Footed Bowl with Lotus Pond

Seifū Yohei III

Date

1887–92

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze color and modeled designs

Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Seifū Yohei III was the most prominent head of a ceramics studio in Kyoto that specialized in Chinese-style porcelains and especially items for use in sencha (煎茶), or the drinking of steeped-leaf tea with companions. Sencha was popular among the bunjin of Kyoto and Osaka, who often enjoyed it as part of their emulation of Chinese culture. While sencha was by design less formal than the Japanese tea ceremony, it still featured the display of treasured objects. Prized Chinese antiquities were generally unobtainable, so substitutes such as the Gu-Shaped Flower Vase, CMA 2022.224 , were much in demand. Bowls for distributing sweets, like this one, were also a staple of sencha gatherings. This high-footed bowl simulates exploration of a pond both from underwater and from the sky.

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