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Source Description
This flask has stencil-like paintings of three turtles—a young one with its parents—while the other in this pair has a crane with a leg raised. Cranes and turtles are well-recognized symbols of longevity in East Asia, with the turtle said to live for ten thousand years and the crane for one thousand. <br><br>Each flask also has a poem on the back, one in Chinese and the other in Japanese. The latter, which appears on the turtle flask, reads <em>kame iwaku kamiyo wa, ore no wakaki toki.</em> The seventeen syllable poem begins with “turtle” and ends with “when I was young.” It can be translated as, “the turtle said the world of the gods began when I was young.”
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
519464
label
Tortoises Sake Pourer from Sake Pourers with Crane and Tortoises
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
519464
contentType
object
title
Tortoises Sake Pourer from Sake Pourers with Crane and Tortoises
description
This flask has stencil-like paintings of three turtles—a young one with its parents—while the other in this pair has a crane with a leg raised. Cranes and turtles are well-recognized symbols of longevity in East Asia, with the turtle said to live for ten thousand years and the crane for one thousand. <br><br>Each flask also has a poem on the back, one in Chinese and the other in Japanese. The latter, which appears on the turtle flask, reads <em>kame iwaku kamiyo wa, ore no wakaki toki.</em> The seventeen syllable poem begins with “turtle” and ends with “when I was young.” It can be translated as, “the turtle said the world of the gods began when I was young.”
date
1893–1914
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q117536035
creators
299428
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.)
cul
Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
accession
2022.159.2
Source extras
tec
One of a pair of sake flasks; porcelain with overglaze color enamel
tombstone
Tortoises Sake Pourer from Sake Pourers with Crane and Tortoises, 1893–1914. Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914). One of a pair of sake flasks; porcelain with overglaze color enamel; overall: 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of James and Christine Heusinger, 2022.159.2
collection
Japanese Art
inscriptions
inscription_translation
Seventeen-syllable Japanese poem on the turtle flask: “the turtle said the world of the gods began when I was young.”
sortorder
1
didYouKnow
This pair of seemingly humble sake pourers celebrate longevity and delight in a literary tradition that embraces multiple forms of poetic expression.
citations
citation
Maezaki, Shinya and Sinéad Vilbar. <em>Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 17, pp. 90–91, 61
creditline
Gift of James and Christine Heusinger
updatedAt
2026-05-29 09:05:59.417000
sourceId
519464
dept
Japanese Art
coll
Japanese Art
med
One of a pair of sake flasks; porcelain with overglaze color enamel
creatorTags
male
Asian (from 1900 to present)
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
843de560d81dc890