Vase, one of a pair with F1996.33.2

Rendered in startling, dark tones and framed by golden clouds is a shadowy landscape where Japanese gods and goddesses have gathered to lure the Sun Goddess Amaterasu from the cave where she has hidden herself following a quarrel with her brother, which has plunged the world into darkness. This famous episode in Shinto mythology concludes with a voluptuous young goddess performing a humorous, erotic dance and Amaterasu pushing the boulder aside to see what is happening outside. The painter of this pair of vases has created an unusual version of this scene that continues around both vessels. One shows the young goddess dancing, while the other shows a rooster crowing in response to the first rays of light. The artist, Kanzan Denshichi, who lived in Kyoto, won international awards for his work, which employed traditional Japanese and Chinese decorative techniques with newly introduced European materials and styles.