Incense Burner with Peony and Cloud (1914–46): Art, History and Details

Incense Burner with Peony and Cloud (1914–46) 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:

Yohei IV’s incense burner has a scrolling floral pattern of peonies and nyoi sta€ff-head forms around the body and a band of clouds around the collar. These are done in low relief, with incised lines marking the details in the flower petals and leaves. The silver lid has a proliferation of flowers, including lily, peony, and a variety of chrysanthemums. The box lid identifies the subtle pink over an ivory body as “dawn’s light[–glazed] porcelain” (shokōji). After he became an Artist of the Imperial Household, Yohei III created a number of glaze and clay combinations with what would have been considered Japan-focused names to be in alignment with his position as an artist representing the nation. Among them was a glaze called “dawn’s light pale [pink] color” (akebonoiro tansai), which he invented in 1895. It is possible that this incense burner is an example with this glaze, despite the slightly different name given on the box. While the name alludes to the Land of the Rising Sun, an epithet for Japan, the burner’s motifs remain very much drawn from the Chinese repertoire.

Object facts

• Title: Incense Burner with Peony and Cloud
• Date: 1914–46
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with molded and incised design, pale pink glaze, and floral openwork silver lid
• Dimensions: height with lid: 12.9 cm (5 1/16 in.); Diameter: 13.5 cm (5 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.204

A detail from the museum

Seifū Yohei IV’s incense burner has a pale pink glaze named “dawn’s light.”

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.