Sake Pourer with Flowers

This sake pourer is of a type called a chōshi. It is elaborately decorated with flowers in overglaze enamels in several colors, including black for the contour lines of leaves and stems; orange, white, gold, and two shades of green for the peonies; and purple for the thistles. The white blossoms have been built up with white enamel, then incised for a white-on-white eect; the orange and purple use an absence of color to produce the contours of individual petals. Yohei III referred to his works in multicolor overglaze enamels as “hundred flower brocades” (hyakka nishiki). Two small nyoi (C. ruyi) staff-head motifs, molded in clay and applied to either side of the lid, create handle rests, as well as natural places for the thumb and index finger of one hand to rest, so one can both secure the lid and steady the pour, while the handles are held in the other hand. The top of a nyoi staff resembles the curled cap of the reishi. Such scepters are imagined to be found in the hands of sages, Daoist immortals, or Buddhist deities and connote lofty goings-on and favorable circumstances. Since this sake pourer is unsigned, it may have been made for imperial family members to give as a gift.