Cleveland Museum of Art

Gu-Shaped Flower Vase

Date

1893–97

Medium

Glazed porcelain with molded and carved 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 were much in demand. This gu -shaped vase has “cherry blossom glaze” ( ōkayū ), which Yohei III invented in 1890.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.