Height 40.0 cm, mouth diameter 7.7 cm, body diameter 20.1 cm, bottom diameter 12.8 cm
Umezawa Memorial Museum
This large gourd-shaped vase has a richly swollen body with a gradually opening neck that is slightly thicker than the rest, and a sharply twisted rim. It is considered one of the best examples of milky-white glazed earthenware, but it shows fine nannyu (penetration) on the glazed surface. The upper part of the body is decorated with peonies and flowers in an alternating arabesque style, while the lower part is decorated with a peony design with branches stretching out to the left and right, centering on a taiko-ishi stone where two birds are lodged. The composition of the flower-and-bird design is similar to that of the vase shown in Figure 3, with the exception of the chrysanthemums and peonies. However, the expression of the branches and leaves on the taihu rocks and peonies is a bit rigid, and moreover, the detail in the expression of the leaf tips is evident. The design of the Chinese flowers on the upper part is similar to the design on the rim of the ceramic tiles used in the Nishi Honganji Sutra Repository built in the fifth year of the Enpo period (1670s), so it must have been made in the Enpo period. It was exported to Europe and returned to Japan in recent years. There is one other example of the same shape from Japan, but I have not seen it.
