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:

Seifū Yohei II and his successor, Seifū Yohei III, trained in ink painting. Their brush skills are seen in their underglaze cobalt blue designs. Orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and plum, appearing on Yohei III’s sake pourer, are known as the Four Gentlemen. They symbolize the virtues of humility, integrity, endurance, and perseverance.

Object facts

• Title: Sake Pourer with Chrysanthemum, Orchid, and Plum
• Date: c. 1887
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• 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 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.