Important Cultural Property. Celadon vase with phoenix handles, Southern Song dynasty, 12th century, Longquan ware. Height 28.8 cm; Maximum Diameter 12.8 cm; Weight 1,332g. Gift of Sumitomo Group (The Ataka Collection) © The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka. Photo Shigeru NISHIKAWA

This celadon vase with handles in the shape of a phoenix was glazed in multiple layers, displaying a fenqing (powder blue) color. In Japan such vases are called kinuta seiji meaning mallet-shape celadon. Since the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1185-1573), Longquan celadon was commonly imported to Japan and there are many examples that became family heirlooms handed down from generation to generation. This work is also said to have been preserved by the Aoyama family, a feudal lord of Tanba Sasayama domain (present-day Hyogo Prefecture). Among the extant phoenix-handled vases, the piece housed in Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi (Osaka, Japan), named "Bansei (ten thousand voices)" designated as a national treasure, and another in Yomei Bunko (Kyoto, Japan), named "Sensei (one thousand voices)" designated as an important cultural property, are especially well known. This work, however, exceeds even them in terms of the beauty of the glaze and the well-proportioned modeling. It is considered to be a product of Longquan kiln in Zhejiang Province during the golden age of the Southern Song dynasty.