Gu-shaped Vase (1912–14): Art, History and Details

Gu-shaped Vase (1912–14) 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:

Seifū Yohei III mined the repertoire of Chinese vessel types, from ceramics modeled after ancient ritual bronzes to shapes developed in the Yuan (1279–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) dynasties. His designs tended to be formal and restrained, often featuring creamy white glazes suggestive of the hue of Ding ware and green glazes resembling Longquan ware. This gu-shaped vase has a cracked-ice glaze, which was once customarily called Ge (Japanese pronunciation Ka), after the kiln where it purportedly originated during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). The glaze’s double-crackle pattern, featuring both deeper and shallower cracks, is called “gold threads and iron lines.” The effect was enhanced here by coating the vessel with ink or another stain, which was allowed to seep into the cracks before the surface was wiped clean.

Object facts

• Title: Gu-shaped Vase
• Date: 1912–14
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with crackled glaze
• Dimensions: 27.9 cm (11 in.); Diameter of top: 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.223

A detail from the museum

Gu-shaped vases are relatively slender cylinders that flare at both the mouth and foot with orbs or drumlike forms partway up the vessel.

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.