Dated by the Khalili Collection to 1910–1915, this vase belongs to the last phase of Meizan’s career. In these years the studio increasingly favoured a single flowering plant set against a generous expanse of ground. The ovoid body rises to a wide, slightly flared neck, and is painted and gilt with stems of rhododendron in white, orange, purple and yellow. The blooms are clustered so that their colours read clearly across the cream glaze.
The vase is a useful counterpoint to the miniature figure scenes for which Meizan is best known. It shows the studio adapting to a taste for broader, more naturalistic flower painting in the later Meiji and early Taishō years, while keeping its hallmark precision of line and gilding. It stands 21.7 centimetres high. The vase is published in the Khalili ceramics catalogue edited by Impey and Fairley (1995), cat. 99, and in Joe Earle’s Splendors of Imperial Japan (2002), cat. 104.