Antique Satsuma vase in oriental style. Made from porcelain. Skillfully hand-painted in the Satsuma style, featuring typical geisha designs, a traditional soaring pavilion house and flowering plants. Japan, 20th century.

The Satsuma style takes its name from the province where production began. The earliest known items date back to the middle of the 16th century, at which time the crock was still dark in color. And the world-famous products in the Satsuma style appeared in the Meiji era. Master Kinkozan Sobei is considered the founder of the style, it was he who began working with very fine creamy white porcelain, painting it in a characteristic manner.

Soon, Satsuma porcelain became popular all over the world, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the Japanese porcelain presented captivated the European public.

Satsuma products are painted with enamels and gold paint, the manufacturing technology of which was borrowed from the Meissen factory. The style is characterized by fine detailed painting, which covers not only external, but also internal surfaces and the Moriage technology, when the enamel coating is not covered with glaze, due to which the painting is not flat, but embossed. Favorite subjects were genre scenes depicting warriors, geishas, saints, as well as landscapes and illustrations for literary works.

With the first appearance in Europe, products in the Satsuma style gained unprecedented popularity and became a real work of art, they are highly valued today and look great in a modern interior.