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Sweets bowls hold the confections enjoyed when drinking tea. This bowl and <a href="http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.207"><u>CMA 2022.207</u></a> offer an important lesson in appreciating Yohei IV’s ceramic practice, for while they have the same design and shape and are made with the same materials, the execution of the pieces makes them entirely different upon close inspection, thereby demonstrating the range of possible production results from a single template. Each bowl has the same composition of two different types of chrysanthemum flowers, one with long, slim, knifelike petals and the other with short, rounded, multilayered petals, shown running around its surface in low relief. The centers of the flowers are painted with yellow under the glaze. Yohei III formulated a number of new underglaze colors during his career, and this is likely one of them. <br><br>The storage box lid provides abbreviated descriptions of the complex processes used in the surface decorations. It identifies the bowl inside as “Sweets dish with picture of chrysanthemum in <em>kanpakuyū</em>.” The box lid has on its exterior the seal reading “Seizan Seifu” 成山清風, which includes Yohei IV’s style name, but no signature. Instead, a signature is found on the interior of the box lid, accompanied by another seal, this time a gourd-shaped seal reading “Seifu.” The ink inscriptions are in a mode closer to formal script. <br><br>This bowl, with the signature on the inside of the box lid, stands out for a distinctively bubble-filled glaze with a heavier pink effect, as well as more noticeable yellow at the flowers’ centers and deeper carving in the relief decoration. The design has crept much closer to the rim. A closer look at the delineation of the flower petals reveals that the designs differ at times with respect to which petals appear in front or behind others. <br><br>The centers of the bases of both bowls are incised with “Seifu” in a manner matching many other works by Yohei IV, although there are slight differences. As one might expect from the other differences in the bowls, the characters on the base of the subtle bowl, <a href="http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.207"><u>CMA 2022.207</u></a><u>,</u> are gentler, finishing in a tapering out of the strokes. The strokes on this bold bowl end in triangular pinheads.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
447791
label
Sweets Bowl with Chrysanthemums
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
447791
contentType
object
title
Sweets Bowl with Chrysanthemums
description
Sweets bowls hold the confections enjoyed when drinking tea. This bowl and <a href="http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.207"><u>CMA 2022.207</u></a> offer an important lesson in appreciating Yohei IV’s ceramic practice, for while they have the same design and shape and are made with the same materials, the execution of the pieces makes them entirely different upon close inspection, thereby demonstrating the range of possible production results from a single template. Each bowl has the same composition of two different types of chrysanthemum flowers, one with long, slim, knifelike petals and the other with short, rounded, multilayered petals, shown running around its surface in low relief. The centers of the flowers are painted with yellow under the glaze. Yohei III formulated a number of new underglaze colors during his career, and this is likely one of them. <br><br>The storage box lid provides abbreviated descriptions of the complex processes used in the surface decorations. It identifies the bowl inside as “Sweets dish with picture of chrysanthemum in <em>kanpakuyū</em>.” The box lid has on its exterior the seal reading “Seizan Seifu” 成山清風, which includes Yohei IV’s style name, but no signature. Instead, a signature is found on the interior of the box lid, accompanied by another seal, this time a gourd-shaped seal reading “Seifu.” The ink inscriptions are in a mode closer to formal script. <br><br>This bowl, with the signature on the inside of the box lid, stands out for a distinctively bubble-filled glaze with a heavier pink effect, as well as more noticeable yellow at the flowers’ centers and deeper carving in the relief decoration. The design has crept much closer to the rim. A closer look at the delineation of the flower petals reveals that the designs differ at times with respect to which petals appear in front or behind others. <br><br>The centers of the bases of both bowls are incised with “Seifu” in a manner matching many other works by Yohei IV, although there are slight differences. As one might expect from the other differences in the bowls, the characters on the base of the subtle bowl, <a href="http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.207"><u>CMA 2022.207</u></a><u>,</u> are gentler, finishing in a tapering out of the strokes. The strokes on this bold bowl end in triangular pinheads.
date
1914–46
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q117716974
creators
299426
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
height: 8.5 cm (3 3/8 in.); Diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)
cul
Japan, Taishō period (1912–26) or Shōwa period (1926–89)
accession
2022.206
Source extras
tec
Porcelain with in-glaze and underglaze color and molded design
tombstone
Sweets Bowl with Chrysanthemums, 1914–46. Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951). Porcelain with in-glaze and underglaze color and molded design; height: 8.5 cm (3 3/8 in.); diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of James and Christine Heusinger, 2022.206
collection
Japanese Art
inscriptions
inscription
清風
inscription_translation
“Seifū” inscribed on the base
sortorder
1
inscription
成山清風
inscription_translation
Seal on the top of the box lid: “Seizan Seifū.”
inscription_remark
Storage box is inscribed and impressed with seals.
sortorder
2
didYouKnow
Here Yohei IV used his father’s <em>kanpakuji</em> formula, with underglaze pink for the gradated wash of color surrounding the flowers.
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. 64, pp. 153–154
creditline
Gift of James and Christine Heusinger
updatedAt
2026-05-29 09:02:35.005000
sourceId
447791
dept
Japanese Art
coll
Japanese Art
med
Porcelain with in-glaze and underglaze color and molded design
creatorTags
male
Asian (from 1900 to present)
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
a402628e4ec4b859