Teacup from Tea Set with Chinese Landscape

1893–1914

Seifū Yohei III 三代清風与平

(Japanese, 1851–1914)

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Culture

Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)

Medium

Porcelain with underglaze blue

Measurements

5 x 8.2 cm (1 15/16 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of James and Christine Heusinger 2022.171.3

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

This 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.

Description

This tea set has a side-handled pot called a kyūsu, used for steeping, straining, and serving tea. Unlike some others, this set also has a yuzamashi, a container used to cool boiled water to just the right temperature for the best flavor when steeping. Seifū Yohei III’s painting teacher, Tanomura Chokunyū (1814–1907), made a visual record of famous sencha events that shows how 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.

The theme of this sencha tea set is the Chinese scholar-recluse in an idyllic landscape. Each of the five teacups has a landscape with an architectural structure and some human activity.