The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 5, 2024
Sake Pourer with Flowers
1893–1914
(Japanese, 1851–1914)
Diameter: 10.1 cm (4 in.); width with spout: 13.1 cm (5 3/16 in.); height with lid: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.); with handle: 14.4 cm (5 11/16 in.); Lid: 3.5 x 5 cm (1 3/8 x 1 15/16 in.)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
This sake pourer with purple thistles and orange peonies shows off Seifū Yohei III’s technique of enamels painted over the glaze.Description
This sake pourer is of a type called a chōshi. It is elaborately decorated with flowers in overglaze enamels in several colors, including black for the contour lines of leaves and stems; orange, white, gold, and two shades of green for the peonies; and purple for the thistles. The white blossoms have been built up with white enamel, then incised for a white-on-white eect; the orange and purple use an absence of color to produce the contours of individual petals. Yohei III referred to his works in multicolor overglaze enamels as “hundred flower brocades” (hyakka nishiki). Two small nyoi (C. ruyi) staff-head motifs, molded in clay and applied to either side of the lid, create handle rests, as well as natural places for the thumb and index finger of one hand to rest, so one can both secure the lid and steady the pour, while the handles are held in the other hand. The top of a nyoi staff resembles the curled cap of the reishi. Such scepters are imagined to be found in the hands of sages, Daoist immortals, or Buddhist deities and connote lofty goings-on and favorable circumstances. Since this sake pourer is unsigned, it may have been made for imperial family members to give as a gift.- ?–2022James and Christine Heusinger, Berea, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art2022–The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Maezaki, Shinya and Sinéad Vilbar. Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 16, pp. 88–89"Colours of Kyoto, Ceramics From the Yohei Studio." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 27, no. 1 (November 2023): 8 Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 8
- Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 19, 2023-March 10, 2024).
- {{cite web|title=Sake Pourer with Flowers|url=false|author=Seifū Yohei III|year=1893–1914|access-date=05 December 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.161