Water Container with Shell and Seaweed
Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951)
1914–46
- Medium
- Porcelain with underglaze blue, blue glaze and molded design and lacquered wood lid
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- height: 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.); Diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912) or Taishō period (1912–26)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of James and Christine Heusinger
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Yohei IV chose an aquatic theme for this mizusashi. He applied clay to the surface and molded the shape of a large conch on one side and, on the other, a clam and a scallop. The finer details he incised into the surface of his low-relief shapes. He then painted seaweed as though it were coming out from behind the sea creatures, and he further set off the animals using a masking technique with a gradated blue surround. Finally, he applied a translucent blue glaze, identified on the box as mizusai, over the entire body of the vessel. The resulting effect is that one imagines having descended through the water to the ocean floor.
