Pottery & porcelain · a closer look

Satsuma mark: 精巧山造

Mark details

Maker: Satsuma →
Period: Undated
Wording: 精巧山造
Appearance: Four gold characters on a black square, with a separate handwritten collection number beneath.
Type: painted
Colour: gold and red
Material: earthenware
Place: Japan

Four-character square signature without the Yasuda emblem or Shimazu crest; the handwritten number is a collection mark.

Gold characters read right-to-left in vertical columns as Seikozan zo.

Undated

This four-character brush mark dates to the Meiji era and differs from later printed labels.

Undated

Gold square seal with the full Yabu Meizan name; the same seal format appears in a 1904 advertisement.

Undated

An impressed body mark differs from painted Taizan signatures; the kiln closed in 1894.

Undated

Yasuda emblem supplies a proposed post-1896 limit; a different Ryozan spelling need not identify Okamoto.

Undated

This black-panel format dates to about 1900; the name can identify commissioned work.