Crane Sake Pourer from Sake Pourers with Crane and Tortoises
Medium
One of a pair of sake flasks; porcelain with overglaze color enamel
Dimensions
h. 13.9 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Japanese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of James and Christine Heusinger
Accession Number
2022.159.1
Tags
About this artwork
This flask has a crane with a leg raised, while the other flask of this pair has stencil-like paintings of three turtles—a young one with its parents. Cranes and turtles are well-recognized symbols of longevity in East Asia, with the turtle said to live for ten thousand years and the crane for one thousand. Each flask also has a poem on the back, one in Chinese and the other in Japanese. The Chinese poem on this crane flask is two nonconsecutive five-character lines from a poem called “Crane Fee...