Teacups with Chinese Landscapes

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.