Satsuma vase
Japan
Meiji period, 1868 - 1912
Height 15 cm, 6 cm

The square vase features two large and four small panels with finely executed groups of figures in all-over decoration and is marked on the bottom with the Shimazu mon of the Satsuma clan and "Kinseido Hekizan Zo".
Hekizan had already been active since the Edo period (cf. a large satsuma vase by Hekizan from the Avo Krikorian collection, dated to the Edo-Meiji period at Christie's, to the Edo period at Sotheby's), he was one of the artists whose works at the Paris World's Fair of 1867 were instrumental in awakening Western interest in Japanese arts and crafts.