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Sake Bottle with Three Figures
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The bottle features three elegantly drawn figures: a beautiful woman, a young man, and a priest. The artist used a fine-haired brush to draw these figures in colored enamel onto the porcelain bottle, which had already been given a clear glaze. A final firing fused the enamel to the form. The name derives from the port of Imari from where Japanese porcelains were shipped to other cities in Japan, China, and Europe.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineSake Bottle with Three Figures, late 1700s. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Porcelain with overglaze enamel and gold decoration (Hizen ware, Arita type); diameter: 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.); with cover: 27.2 cm (10 11/16 in.); without cover: 24.2 cm (9 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Collection, 1964.272.a
