Bowl with Interior Floral and Butterfly Design and Exterior Wisteria Design

In 1868, the Japanese Meiji emperor deposed the last Shogun and initiated a series of sweeping political, social, economic, and cultural changes that transformed Japan into a modern, international superpower. As one aspect of these changes, the Meiji government encouraged the growth of a vigorous art industry, the products of which were meant to impress the world with their superior craftsmanship, as well as bring Japan much needed foreign revenue. This bowl is an excellent example of a particular new type of Meiji ceramic art called Satsuma ware.

Named for a superficial resemblance to an earlier type of ceramic produced in the region of Satsuma on Kyushu Island, Meiji Satsuma wares featured earthenware bodies that were covered with a thick ivory glaze and lavishly decorated with colored enamels and gold. The best examples were painted with extraordinarily fine designs; in some cases, the artists used single-hair brushes and jeweler's glasses to create their delicate images. The clouds of tiny butterflies on the interior of this bowl would have required just such a painstaking technique. The bowl was painted by a Tokyo-based artist named Itô Tôzan, who had initially studied conventional brush painting before becoming a ceramic decorator in the 1880s. His Satsuma wares won prizes at international exhibitions in Paris, Chicago, and Amsterdam in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1917, he was made a member of the prestigious Imperial Art Academy in Tokyo. One of his sons also became a noted ceramic painter.

The bowl came to Oberlin in a bequest from the important Cleveland collector Charles F. Olney. The Olney bequest included hundreds of Meiji-period Japanese art objects in a wide range of media, including ceramic, enamel, bronze, and ivory. Today, only a fraction of the original Olney collection remains, but the surviving works include examples that represent the outstanding achievements of Meiji art.