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Tags for: Imperial Household Artist Seifū Yohei III and the Birth of Modern Japanese Ceramics
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blue and white ceramic vase with phoenix

Flower Vase with Phoenix in Paulownia (detail), 1897–1914. Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914). Porcelain with molded and carved design and underglaze blue; h. 20.6 cm, diam. 15.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of James and Christine Heusinger, 2022.199

Imperial Household Artist Seifū Yohei III and the Birth of Modern Japanese Ceramics

Sunday, August 20, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Gartner Auditorium

About The Event

Across four generations of makers from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, the Kyoto-based studio of Seifū Yohei created distinctive porcelain for both Japanese elites and global audiences. In this lecture, scholar Shinya Maezaki focuses on the life and work of artist Seifū Yohei III as a lens through which to analyze aspects of the modernization of Japan and to consider the history of international trade.

Shinya Maezaki is currently a professor at Kyoto Women’s University, where he teaches art and design history. He recently authored the principal essay for Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio (2023), the publication that accompanies the exhibition of the same name on view at the CMA from August 19, 2023, through March 10, 2024. His many publications include the book Made in Kyoto (2020), for which he was coeditor, and the chapter “Unifying Science and Art: The Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute (1896–1920) and Ceramic Art Education during the Taisho Era,” in Ceramics and Modernity in Japan (2019). His 2009 doctoral dissertation for the University of London, School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), examined the life and art of ceramist Seifū Yohei III (1851–1914). 

 

This lecture is funded in part through a generous award from the Japan Foundation’s 2023 Exhibitions Abroad Support Program. 

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. Major annual support is provided by Brenda and Marshall Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Fortney, David and Robin Gunning, Dieter and Susan M. Kaesgen, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Gail C. and Elliott L. Schlang, Shurtape Technologies, and the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. Generous annual support is provided by Gini and Randy Barbato, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Char and Chuck Fowler, the Giant Eagle Foundation, Robin Heiser, the Lloyd D. Hunter Memorial Fund, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Logsdon Family Fund for Education, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Mandi Rickelman, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Sally and Larry Sears Fund for Education Endowment, Roy Smith, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Trilling Family Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

    Education programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

         

      Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio is funded in part with a generous award from the Japan Foundation 2023 Exhibitions Abroad Support Program.

      All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and the late Roy L. Williams. Generous annual support is provided by an anonymous supporter, the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Carl T. Jagatich, Cathy Lincoln, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, Margaret and Loyal Wilson, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.