Sake Pourer with Chrysanthemum, Orchid, and Plum (c. 1887): Art, History and Details

Sake Pourer with Chrysanthemum, Orchid, and Plum (c. 1887) 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:

This sake pourers has a wide basin with a low foot; a generous spout open across the top half; a flat, round lid with a small knob recessed flush to the top of the container; and a tall, arched handle that meets the container where the top joins the basin at a sharp angle. It has a painting in underglaze blue of the Four Nobles: chrysanthemum, orchid, plum, and bamboo. Unlike the creamy white color of some Yohei III works, the white of this sake pourer has the bluish cast typical of porcelains produced in Kyoto. It is signed in underglaze blue on the base.

Object facts

• Title: Sake Pourer with Chrysanthemum, Orchid, and Plum
• Date: c. 1887
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with underglaze blue
• Dimensions: height with handle: 23 cm (9 1/16 in.); width with spout: 24 cm (9 7/16 in.); Diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.158.a

A detail from the museum

This sake pourer is decorated with the Chinese theme of the Four Nobles, in which the qualities of a good person are represented by plant.

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.