The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Sake Bottle with Three Figures (lid)

late 1700s

Japan, Edo period

(1615–1868)
porcelain with overglaze enamel and gold decoration
Diameter: 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.); with cover: 27.2 cm (10 11/16 in.); without cover: 24.2 cm (9 1/2 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Collection 1964.272.b
Location: Not on view

Description

The bottle features three elegantly drawn figures: a beautiful woman, a young man, and a priest. The artist used a fine-haired brush to draw these figures in colored enamel onto the porcelain bottle, which had already been given a clear glaze. A final firing fused the enamel to the form. The name derives from the port of Imari from where Japanese porcelains were shipped to other cities in Japan, China, and Europe.
  • (N. V. Hammer, Inc., New York); Severance and Greta Millikin, Cleveland, 1961.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 156, no. 160
  • Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 236); April 19, 2013 - December 24, 2013
    Later Japanese Art Gallery Rotation (Gallery 113); March 18 - November 17, 2004.
    Later Japanese Art Gallery Rotation (Gallery 113); February 20 - May 6, 2003.
    Cleveland Museum of Art (7/5–9/2/1990): “The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection”
    Cleveland Museum of Art (6/30–9/5/1982): “The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art”
  • {{cite web|title=Sake Bottle with Three Figures (lid)|url=false|author=|year=late 1700s|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.272.b