MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), SIGNED YABU MEIZAN (1853-1934)

Yabu Meizan was born as the second son of the painter Yabu Choei in Osaka in 1853. In 1880 he established a studio decorating Satsuma ware for export, buying pottery blanks from makers like Chin Jukan of Kagoshima and Kinkozan of Kyoto. He travelled a number of times to Europe and America to attend expositions to conduct market research. In 1885 he won a bronze medal at the fourteenth Kyoto Exhibition and in 1904 and 1910 he won gold medals in St Louis and London. His works were marketed abroad through traders like Yamanaka Shokai and Samurai Shokai of Yokohama. The delicacy of his landscapes, flower, and figure paintings sets him above other Satsuma ware artists.