Important Cultural Property. Bottle, celadon with carved peony scroll design. Northern Song dynasty, 11th-12th century, Yaozhou ware. Height (cm) 16.8. Maximum Diameter (cm) 17.3. Weight (g) 1,624. The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (gift of SUMITOMO Group, the ATAKA Collection), photograph by MUDA Tomohiro (Accession No. 00666).

Yaozhou kilns, situated in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, produced large amount of high-quality celadon with an olive-green glaze. One of the features of the Yaozhou wares of this period is the use of katagiri-bori, the unique carving technique in which the outline of a motif is carved by holding the chisel at an angle, making one edge of the outline deeper to let the glaze pooled into it. The decoration produces a sharp as well as an elegant atmosphere. This work bears a band of large peony scrolls on the shoulder through the body, which lies between two bands of distinct double-layered lotus petals on the top and bottom. The deeply carved motif pools thick layers of celadon glaze, achieving a beautiful effect of shading. This is a world-renowned masterpiece being counted as a representative Yaozhou celadon of the Northern Song period.