Bowl

An earthenware bowl, with a fluted kiku-form body painted and gilt on both interior and exterior with an autumnal maple-tree. The leaves on the branches turning from green to orange. At the end of the Meiji Era, Yabu Meizan's workshop began to make a number of vases and bowls that were decorated with a single motif, carefully placed so as to complement the overall shape of the piece, instead of treating the pottery merely as a vehicle for virtuoso miniaturist painting. This return to a more traditional approach to ceramic decoration received official praise, but as it was not commercially successful the workshop continued to produce work in the conventional Meizan style.