This monumental Kyoto Satsuma vase from the late Meiji period is a tour-de-force of Japanese ceramic painting. The broad baluster body with short flared neck stands on a gilt key-fret foot and is completely wrapped in a continuous frieze of scholars, Daoist immortals and attendants in a river landscape, painted on an ivory crackled ground in finely shaded enamels and lavish raised gold.The quality of painting is fully on a level with the best Kyoto Satsuma of the period. Each figure is treated as a separate portrait: eyes, brows, wrinkles and hands are drawn in hair-fine lines, with the same psychological nuance one expects from the top Kyoto masters such as Kinkozan and the Yasuda circle. The robes and swirling clouds are built up in dense raised gold, forming an almost textile surface of brocade patterns that shimmers as the light moves across the vase. Turning the piece reveals a sequence of different scenes, so the owner effectively has several paintings in one object, able to ...