Satsuma vase

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 02:22:41

Hi Peter, thank you for setting up a discussion board for other asian antique ceramics. What I have here is a pair of mirror image Satsuma vases, They are 44.45 cm tall and they have a dull clunck sound when you click them with your finger, not like porcelain, I am just showing one, I can post the other if you like. I have had these two vases for over 30 years, they are well marked, they are marked on the bottom, the inside and on the lid, I always thought that who ever the potter was, was proud of his pottery enough to mark it the way he did, I am pretty sure it is satsuma but I have not been able to find any thing about them, I did find a site where they had a satsuma vase that had the same marks, but nothing was said about the maker other than satsuma, if you could read the marks that would give me more info to do a proper search, your opinion is also appreciated, I will send several photo's because the vase is very detailed, thanks.

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 02:23:57

Here is more photo's, with more to come.

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 02:26:34

More photo's and more to come.

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 02:28:14

More photo's.

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 02:29:58

Last set of Photo's.

peterp · Jul 06, 2014, 09:54:30

Hi Stan,
1. The character inside the neck, above the circle, means "left".
2. The left (darker) six character mark means "Made by Nishida, Dainippon".
3. The third, on the right, could be a name, but could also be a number. The problem is that the first character is a non-existent character, probably abbreviated in an unconventional way. The third character is also simplified but in a well known way.
I have seen such unreadable characters before on Japanese porcelain. I don?t know if this is intentional, but I suppose so, for the writing is otherwise very clear.

Stan · Jul 06, 2014, 11:47:52

Nishida, thank you Peter, I have never heard that name before, that gives me something to study thanks again.

Stan · Jul 07, 2014, 02:22:42

Hi Peter, so far this is what I came up with, Teikoku Nishida Zo, Im not sure if this is the same person, but the same period and the vase I found by him is done in the same style, colors and decoration are very similar, I will continue to search and see if I can find something more definite.

Stan · Jul 07, 2014, 02:59:09

Hi again Peter, it would seem to me if the one vase says left, dose this one say right, I have a pair, also there is writing on the inside of the lid, can you tell me what it says please, I know that on Japanese ceramics that have lids, they usually will have a mark on the vase and the lid, it would be a dot used to line up the lid with the vase so you know the position the maker had in mind. this is true with all the Japanese porcelain and earthenware that I have with lids. Here is some photo's of the other vase and writing on the inside lid, thanks again Peter.

Stan · Jul 07, 2014, 03:01:24

Last set of photo's of the lid with marks.

peterp · Jul 07, 2014, 07:57:39

Hi Stan, it seems to me that you uploaded the same jar picture with "left" again...

Now, this is odd, the three times three characters inside the lid say all the same "???". Not sure about the reading and the meaning. It could be a male personal name, or something else. Readings differ much for names.
The odd thing is that this seems to be the same as the unreadable part on the bottom. The first character with incorrect strokes could be a hastily written "?" (left).

The second character "?" can have two meanings, namely the number 10, or "pick up". In Chinese both are used, but in today's Japanese it is mainly used for "pick up". That doesn't mean it could not be existent in names, or is a discontinued usage.
The second character in the lid "?" is the more commonly used character for number 10.
?=?=10. I do not think the more complicated character is still used for the number ten in Japanese, but in Chinese it is still in use today.
So we seem to have the meaning: left/ten/five on both, the lid and bottom (if we assume the first character was meant to be the same).

I do not know what it is.
- The repeating inside the lid is strange.
- And yes, it could also be a personal name. The characters for left and these numbers appear in many Japanese names, in various combinations. Could be the artisan's name, or just some code we know nothing about.

Stan · Jul 07, 2014, 09:34:39

Sorry about that Peter, I started playing with them switching lids and trying to figure what lid goes where and obviously got confused, it looks like the mark is the same, I was jumping to conclusions thinking the other would say right, this is the other vase and mark, thanks for the translation, that is great getting information on vases I have had for so long.

peterp · Jul 07, 2014, 09:59:43

Yes, this one says indeed "right".
left: ?
right: ?

Stan · Jul 07, 2014, 12:24:27

Thats amazing they are so close looking that I would not have caught that, on the other lid inside it is only marked once and you can barley make it out, I think it might be the same and the other lid but marked once, I did read that they often marked numbers for production items, thanks again peter.