Vase

Location: Japan, Nagoya

Materials: musen enamel, applied with a silver rim and attached silver foot

Dimensions: height 45.3 cm

Accession Number: E 42

Other Notes:

A musen enamel vase, the shouldered body of tapering form and flattened rectangular section, decorated with two distinct scenes. On one side a view through pine and maple trees over a lake towards the distant snow-capped Mount Fuji rising above clouds on a shaded grey ground, the maple-trees in rich autumnal colours. On the other side pines and flowering trees beside a mountain stream. Applied with a silver rim and attached silver foot carved with cherry-blossom on stylized rippling water.

This vase was exhibited at the 1910 Shepherd’s Bush Exhibition in London and is illustrated in the catalogue. In the Japanese edition of the catalogue it is listed as the work of Kawade Shibataro. It is very similar in technique to the pair of twp-folded screens E 40.

Bibliography:

O. Impey, M. Fairley (eds.), Meiji No Takara: Treasures Of Imperial Japan: Enamel, London 1994, cat. 46.
J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 255, pp. 359–61.