Gu-Shaped Vase with Patina (1914–46): Art, History and Details

Gu-Shaped Vase with Patina (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:

Yohei IV’s interest in bold, colorful designs is on full display in this purple gu-shaped vase. He not only exhibits his penchant for bold colors but also shows off a complex surface that suggests the patina on an ancient bronze. The body of the vase is a dark, greenish blue over which there is a thick application of color. While the predominant overlaid color is lavender purple, salmon pink and cornflower blue appear in places along with myriad nearly black forms, perhaps floating dandelion seeds or tiny flowers, scattered over the surface.

Object facts

• Title: Gu-Shaped Vase with Patina
• 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 overglaze color enamel
• Dimensions: 31.2 x 16.5 cm (12 5/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.230

A detail from the museum

The glaze recalls in some respects a Chinese glaze named “snowflake blue,” or xuehualan (Japanese sekka’ai), a low-fired lead-fluxed 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.