Bowl with Old Pine and Poem (1914–46): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Old Pine and Poem (1914–46) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A grand, aged pine is carved into the body of this bowl. The inscription on the reverse side explains the tree’s presence. It is an altered version of two lines from a poem by Li Jiao (646?–715?) called “Pine.” Li Jiao was a senior government official who had a tumultuous career under the reign of Wu Zetian (r. 690–705), as well as those of her sons and grandson during the Tang dynasty (618–907). Although little known today, his work was read in Japan during the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura periods (1185–1333). An anthology containing his poems, which was lost in China, was passed down across the generations in Japan. The translation of the inscription is as follows (the original characters, written and read from right to left, are shown below from left to right): The crane nests in the mastwood tree, the wind flicks at its peaceful branches. 鶴樹君子風拂太平枝 The mastwood is a pine-like evergreen, and the crane sheltering there is protected from the wind. In the original poem, the characters before “branches” (枝) are rather 大夫, meaning “high official.” This is likely a reference to the title bestowed upon a pine tree by the emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BCE) in thanks for its protection when a fierce rain fell as he ascended Mount Tai to pay his obeisance to the heavens.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Old Pine and Poem
• Date: 1914–46
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951)
• Culture: Japan, Taishō period (1912–26) or Shōwa period (1926–89)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with molded and carved design
• Dimensions: height: 8 cm (3 1/8 in.); Diameter: 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.209

A detail from the museum

The box inscription identifies the bowl's glaze as kanpakuyū, "bright-jewel white glaze."

Collection credit

Gift of James and Christine Heusinger

Further reading listed by the museum

• Maezaki, Shinya and Sinéad Vilbar. Colors of Kyoto: The Seifū Yohei Ceramic Studio. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.