This large baluster vase follows villagers through the stages of the rice harvest, with boats and barges on a lake beyond and a mountain range in the distance. The foot is ringed with small roundels alternating peonies, chrysanthemums, and cherry and plum blossoms, above a band of floral lozenges and flowering vines. The shoulder carries a collar of millefleurs topped by a geometric band and floral scroll.
The vase was exhibited at the Columbia Museum of Art in 2014 in ‘Meiji Magic’, drawn from the Kasten collection. It is signed in gilt ‘Yabu Meizan’ and also bears an impressed ‘Meizan’ signature. Offered at Bonhams, Fine Japanese and Korean art, New York, on 15 March 2017, lot 6245. It realised US$27,500 including buyer’s premium, against an estimate of US$15,000–US$25,000.