Collection record · Objects & craft
Teacups with Chinese Landscapes
The collection record classifies this work as ceramic. It is dated 1914–46. Recorded culture or place: Japan, Taishō period (1912–26) or Shōwa period (1926–89).
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Teacups with Chinese Landscapes
- Date
- 1914–46
- Culture / origin
- Japan, Taishō period (1912–26) or Shōwa period (1926–89)
- Materials and technique
- Eleven from a set of twelve teacups; porcelain with underglaze blue
- Dimensions
- (each) drinking cup: 4 x 6.6 cm (1 9/16 x 2 5/8 in.); drinking cup foot (each): 3 cm (1 3/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Seifū Yohei IV (Japanese, 1872–1951)
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 2022.202
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Originally from a set of 12, each of these 11 sencha teacups has a different landscape wrapped around the body, giving individual cups their own engaging narrative. These paintings are comfortingly familiar in their formulaic qualities, known to any casual fan of ink painting; they are also enjoyable in the way the narratives are revealed as one manipulates the cups. They would be perfect as conversation pieces for a tea gathering.
Four of the cups focus on travelers approaching residences. Two have a person crossing a bridge as their central motif: one man has a backpack, and the other, a cloth-wrapped bundle hanging from a pole slung over his shoulder. Another cup depicts a pair of friends gathered together on rock platforms. A single cup shows a man carrying a furled banner toward a pavilion. The remaining three cups feature people riding in boats: two have literati passengers, and the third is occupied by a fisherman.
Seifu Yohei IV’s training as a painter with Tanomura Shosai (1847–1909), an adoptive son of Tanomura Chokunyu, his father’s painting teacher, is evident in the details of the tiny worlds created on the cups.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of James and Christine Heusinger · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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