A PAIR OF GILT SATSUMA EARTHENWARE VASES WITH KOMAI STYLE MOTIFEach Marked Satsuma with Shimazu clan crest markJapan, Meiji period (1868-1912)Each of quadrilobed form with baluster sides supported on a short circular foot and rising to a short cylindrical neck with gilt lipped rim, the shoulder with two gilt lion handles with wide-open mouths. Painted with a continuous scene of thatched cottages in a tree-lined seashore landscape with Mount Fuji in the background, framed by diapered, floral, and foliate borders above the foot and below the rim. The countersunk base and interior covered in a finely crackled transparent glaze. The base with a central mark reading SATSUMA above a Shimazu clan crest mark.HEIGHT 18.5 cm and 18.1 cmCondition: Excellent condition with minor wear and firing irregularities.The present vases are inspired by the works of the famous Komai workshop. The Komai workshop is believed to have been founded in 1841, but it was only when Komai Otojiro I became its head, in 1865, that the company began to make the wares for which they were to become so famous. The workshop, under his leadership specialized in intricate inlaid work of gold and silver into iron. In a promotional brochure of about 1915 his son, Komai Otojiro II (his father having retired in 1906) called his workshop the ‘pioneer of damascene work’ and describes the process of the lacquering of the characteristic black ground, which required kiln firing and burnishing. The Komai style developed with an increasingly pictorial central motif on a background of both geometric patterns and free illustrations of nature, life, and landscapes with elaborate repeating borders. Most of these central motifs illustrate stories from Japanese history or mythology, and the Komai family retains a number of design books in which can be found drawings for many of their works.