Myriad clusters of intertwining flowers and plants decorate the creamy white crackled surface of this exuberantly painted lidded vase. Generically known as Satsuma, this type of porcelain was widely exported from Japan to the United States and Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Satsuma ware took its name from ceramics produced as special products for the Satsuma domain in Kyushu, Japan. The Kinkōzan family, who worked with the Awata kilns in Kyoto, adapted the Satsuma style at the turn of the twentieth century to create a hugely successful factory and export business. The bottom of this vase bears an inscription that translates to “Great Imperial Japan, Awata, Kyoto. Made by Kinkōzan,” as well as a seal in red of the painter’s name, Hyokuga 皕画, which aptly translates as “many pictures.” The dynamic design of flowing plant forms suggests that the vase might have been especially made as a show piece under the direction of Kinkōzan Sōbei (1868-1927) for the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition held in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1904.
—Sherry Fowler