Wine bottle, bowl, and plum branch, from the series "Two Famous Products from Bizen Province (Bizen meibutsu futashina)"
- Date:
- c. 1823
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
From the Bizen meibutsu futashina, the Two Famous Products from Bizen Province, this [shikishiban](/glossary/shikishiban) [surimono](/glossary/surimono) depicts a wine bottle, a bowl, and a plum branch, the two famous products of the title most likely referring to Bizen-yaki ceramics and one of the region's celebrated foodstuffs. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to around 1823, the print exemplifies Gakutei's interest in regional meibutsu, the named local specialties that organized Edo-period travel, commerce, and gift exchange. Bizen Province, in present-day Okayama Prefecture, was famous above all for its unglazed stoneware, and the careful rendering of the wine bottle and bowl in this surimono almost certainly references the distinctive earthen surfaces of Bizen-yaki. The plum branch adds a seasonal poetic note, gesturing toward early spring and the long literary tradition of plum-blossom verse. Gakutei's still-life treatment reserves metallic pigments for accents in the ceramic surfaces and the surrounding ground.
Wine bottle, bowl, and plum branch, from the series "Two Famous Products from Bizen Province (Bizen meibutsu futashina)" was created by Yashima Gakutei (八島岳亭) in c. 1823.
Wine bottle, bowl, and plum branch, from the series "Two Famous Products from Bizen Province (Bizen meibutsu futashina)" depicts birds & flowers.
