Each piece in this set has a delicate design of flowering plum branches and intersecting lines, resembling cracked ice on frozen water, signed in gold on the base. Yohei II created many underglaze blue pieces similar to Kiyomizu Shichibei's works but also produced pieces in different styles starting from the early 1870s. In 1873, he was appointed as supplier to the Industrial Center of Kyoto Prefecture, linked to Kyoto's attempts to reach an international market via Kobe's port. From 1875 until his death, he was involved in national projects presenting Japanese ceramics worldwide. During this period, Yohei III was apprenticed to Yohei II, and this set might be an early example of Yohei III's work, signed with his teacher's name. The set features flower designs resembling Japanese textile patterns, recalling Yohei II's pair of vases with plum blossoms in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The formal exhibition tree designs are transformed into the more approachable blossoms for a genteel domestic setting. Though designs are consistent, each flower petal, pistil, and ice line were handcrafted, making cups, bowls, and dishes similar yet unique. The bottoms of two bowls are included.
Each item in this set has a delicate low-relief design of flowering plum branches over scattered, intersecting lines meant to resemble the cracked-ice surface of a frozen body of water and is signed on the base in gold pigment. While Yohei II produced many fine works in underglaze blue, like those produced by Kiyomizu Shichibei, he also made works in quite different styles later in his career, from the early 1870 s. In 1873, he was appointed purveyor to the Industrial Center of Kyoto Prefecture, a designation associated with Kyoto’s efforts to reach an international market through the port of Kobe; and from 1875 until his death, he was involved in national-level projects to present Japanese ceramics across the world. It was during this period that Yohei III was apprenticed to Yohei II, and it has been suggested that this set may in fact be an early example of Yohei III’s work, which he signed with his teacher’s name. Decorated with flowers resembling Japanese textile motifs, the set calls to mind the design of Yohei II’s pair of vases with plum blossoms in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Here, the elaborate trees created for a formal public exhibition setting have been translated into the approachable blossoms of the genteel domestic environment. While the designs are consistent across the pieces, each raised flower petal and pistil and each incised line in the ice was done by hand, so the cups, bowls, and dishes are similar yet unique.
View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →Article 2 defines a museum as an institution that collects, keeps and displays materials on history, art, folklore, industry and natural science for public use, carries out research on them, and which has been registered under Chapter 2 of this Act. The registration is not decorative. In law, an unregistered collection open to the public is not a museum.
The cool part. The definition of keeping is given as including raising. That single parenthesis is why a zoo, an aquarium and a botanical garden sit inside museum law in Japan: the collection is allowed to be alive. Article 1 also grounds the statute in the Social Education Act and the Basic Act on Culture and the Arts, which places museums in education first and culture second.
Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →Use it A motif small enough to blind-deboss, which is where restraint actually shows.
Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated