Teacup from Teacups with Floral Band Motif (1893–1914): Art, History and Details

Teacup from Teacups with Floral Band Motif (1893–1914) 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:

The five sencha teacups in this set are decorated with incised flowers and dots between a double band at the top and a single band at the bottom. They are in Yohei III’s creamy taihakuji body and glaze. In their motifs, they are quite similar to an incense burner by Yohei III (see CMA 2022.180), but the flowers are even more simple in design, with no open circle at the center. A label affixed to the side of the box refers to them as “sencha cups in emulation of Korean white [ware].” The reference to Korean ware indicates that even though Yohei was more directly inspired by Qing-dynasty wares from the Dehua kilns in Fujian Province in developing his porcelain clay and glaze for works such as these, the general understanding of the continental models still placed them, at least in terms of color, among pieces broadly associated in Japan with Korean white wares. The delicate cups are thinly potted, so they have a highly desirable translucency.

Object facts

• Title: Teacup from Teacups with Floral Band Motif
• Date: 1893–1914
• Creator attribution: Seifū Yohei III (Japanese, 1851–1914)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: One from a set of five cups; porcelain with incised decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.5 x 8.5 cm (1 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.173.3

A detail from the museum

The delicate cups in this set are thinly potted, so they have a highly desirable translucency.

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.