Brazier with Coins Motif (1893–1914): Art, History and Details

Brazier with Coins Motif (1893–1914) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914).

The work and its context

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

Tall pottery braziers called ryōro are often used to heat the water for the tea served at sencha gatherings. This one sits on three sturdy legs, one of which bears the artist’s seal on its face. A horizontal rectilinear opening above this leg allows air to circulate into the lower part of the brazier. The top part is outfitted with three prongs onto which the kettle can be lowered; below them is a basin, perforated with circular holes, that holds the charcoal fuel. The brazier is decorated under the crackled transparent glaze with a design of old coins in iron oxide. The motif is cleverly chosen, for most older coins are round with a central hole, often square, which echoes the cylindrical form of the brazier with its rectilinear “wind gate,” or fūmon.

Object facts

• Title: Brazier with Coins Motif
• Date: 1893–1914
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Stoneware with underglaze iron oxide designs and crackling
• Dimensions: height: 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.); Diameter: 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.175

A detail from the museum

One coin is painted with the Japanese god of wealth, Daikokuten, standing upon two bales of rice.

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.