A hand-thrown Japanese Sumida Gawa (Sumida-yaki) bowl signed Ryosai, dating to the late Meiji–Taisho period, circa 1900–1920. The low-fired earthenware body is of deep rounded form on a narrow foot, thrown with visible horizontal ribbing and finished in a warm brick-red slip ground of dry, brushed texture, the interior glazed in a smooth matte olive-green.The everted rim and upper body are sheathed in a lustrous flambé glaze of deep aubergine-black shot with oxblood, blue and cream mottling, descending in an undulating curtain over the red ground in the manner of Chinese Shiwan (Shekwan) wares.Applied and modelled in high relief around the exterior is an animated narrative group of figures clambering over applied rockwork — an elder in a green-glazed robe reaching toward a dark jar, further robed figures in white with underglaze-blue decoration, their expressive bisque faces finely detailed — a composition encircling the whole vessel. The lower body bears an applied oval white ...