Vase with Plum Blossoms (1914–46): Art, History and Details

Vase with Plum Blossoms (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:

Although inspired by representations of flowering plum, or prunus, in Chinese ceramics, the dense allover design of branches on this vase also resembles Japanese textile patterns. As they might on a kimono, the trunks run in alternate directions up and down the surface. At the foot, or bottom of the vase, is a classic band of spirals, and at the neck, or narrowed portion near the opening, is a collar of clouds.

Object facts

• Title: Vase with Plum Blossoms
• 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: Glazed porcelain with molded and carved design
• Dimensions: 32.9 x 23.1 cm (12 15/16 x 9 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2022.211

A detail from the museum

Yohei IV’s allover design of budding and flowering plum blossoms, strongly associated with spring and with China, is combined with his father’s “water color” glaze on this vase.

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.