This small lidded box, less than eight centimetres long, compresses one of Meizan’s favourite subjects into a palm-sized object. The outside shows a daimyō procession, the formal progress of a feudal lord and his retinue, which the studio painted again and again on vases and bowls. Opening the lid reveals a contrasting interior decorated with birds and flowers. The British Museum describes the body as buff glazed and enamelled pottery in the Satsuma style, and records the box as made by Yabu Meizan.
The box was bequeathed to the museum by Captain Collingwood Ingram, the naturalist and plantsman. The museum’s record gives a production date of the 18th to 19th century, which cannot be reconciled with a decorator born in 1853 whose studio opened in 1880. It is best read as a cataloguing anomaly rather than evidence of an earlier date. Until the record is revised, the attribution and dating of this piece should be treated with appropriate caution.