Meizan workshop

Meiji period, 19/20th century

1868-1912

Vase

A huge satsuma vase of a tiger in a bamboo forest, painted in enamel on a crackle glaze. Blue and green bamboo cover most of the body with gold dividing each stem. A tiger snarling while walking through water and frost covers bamboo leaves at his feet. This tiger looks more like it is of the dog variety while it has striped fur and a long tail with clawed paws it has an uncharacteristic elongated jaw more like a dog or wolf.

Tigers have not been in Japan for hundreds of years and most Japanese would only know of them through descriptions of simple drawings. Often images of tigers look more like dogs or domesticated cats. Only those Japanese having travelled to China of Korea may have had a chance of seeing a tiger in the wild. The artist that had painted the tiger on this vase would have most likely used Edo period woodblock prints as inspiration having copied what he thought a tiger may have looked like.

380mm x 360mm

Signed Meizan workshop

Setsu-Zan-Do

Meiji period, 19th century

1868-1912

Chargers

A pair of large Kutani earthenware chargers. Crackle glaze earthenware painted in red, black and gold. One charger depicts a samurai lord giving a young woman a scroll. This is possibly him arranging the marriage of his daughter to another samurai. The other charger depicts two samurai watching the event take place.

Signed Kutani, Setsu-Zan-Do

380mm x 380mm

Anonymous

Meiji period 19/20th century

1868-1912

Tea Caddy

A delicate satsuma tea caddy in earthen wear and enamel paint with gold highlights. Decorated in a floral design of chrysanthemums and grasses typical of satsuma designs with a crackle glaze finish. This would be used to hold dried tea for the Buddhist tea ceremonies made for export during the Meiji period.

Size 75mm x 53mm

Gyozan

Meiji period, 19/20th century

1868-1912

Kogo

A satsuma kogo (incense box) painted in black with lotus flowers to the lid. Inside is a painted scene of Hagurosan Sansho Daigongen, showing Kannon (centre), Gundari myo-o (bottom left), and myoken Bosatsu (bottom right).

In the Meiji period (1868-1912) the government forcibly separated the Buddhist and Shinto religions ordering a separation of Kami and Buddha worship. This prohibited the mixing of kami and buddha in shrines and temples. Kami could no longer be revered as avatars of the various buddha and bodhisattva. During this time the temple on Mt Haguro was converted to a Shinto-shrine called ideha jinja with another two mountains were designated gassan jinja and yudonsan jinja. These three are collectively known as Dewa Sanzan Jinja where these three deities are worshipped together in the main hall Gassaiden on Mt Haguro.

110mm x 37mm

Signed Gyozan