This ovoid vase is painted with a continuous outdoor scene of a puppeteer at work beneath flowering cherry branches. He deftly manipulates a warrior puppet, and a ring of children watches spellbound. The composition reduces Meizan’s familiar crowded genre scene to a single, focused moment of street entertainment. The cherry blossom overhead sets the scene in spring.
Street performers and children’s amusements were among the studio’s recurrent genre subjects, offering a picture of everyday Japanese life. The vase is 15.2 centimetres high and signed on the base ‘Yabu Meizan’ within a gilt seal. Offered at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Art, London, New Bond Street, on 7 November 2019, lot 135. It realised £7,562.50 including buyer’s premium, against an estimate of £6,000–£8,000.