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Tanuki (?) celadon sake bottle

In Animals > Show & Tell and Asian > Sake Sets > Show & Tell.
All items5472 of 244514Victorian art glass mauve trailed bowl with uranium crestDining Car China
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    Posted 1 year ago

    kwqd
    (1184 items)

    This sake bottle is about 5" high x 5" widest diameter. It is very thin porcelain, easy to see my fingers through it, and not marked. Claimed by the seller to date to the 1920s, but I think it is much newer. It has the greenish tint of celadon with no crackling to the glaze. Sake bottle is a guess. Only $.99, so worth some effort to examine and research.

    Not sure what the animal is. It appears to be carrying or tipping the jar. The seller claimed "wolverine". Possibly a tanuki, or "racoon dog" which is a fairly popular theme for tokurri. I have not found a single example of a wolverine themed sake anything. Wolverines are only native to the extreme northern parts of the northern hemisphere, so not to be found in Japan, China or Korea.

    https://sakura.co/blog/tanuki-magic-exploring-japans-raccoon-dog-folklore/

    It shows some signs of use and may have been used as a vase at some point but cleaned up with a short soak in soapy water.

    Update:

    I found this etsy auction with a ridiculously inflated price and same claims of 1920-1930 manufacture and rarity of these pieces. Not sure where the original, dubious information for these pieces came from, but I find it very unlikely. What the bottle for the etsy auction had that is possibly useful is a string of cold painted Japanese characters on the back which are shown in image three of my post. Maybe a Kutani mark?

    https://www.etsy.com/listing/1314589876/porcelain-figurine-wolverine-vessel-for

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    Comments

    1. dav2no1 dav2no1, 1 year ago
      Isn't that the Coca-Cola bear? Just kidding.. nice find. A quick search reveals a few that say wolverine..
    2. apostata apostata, 1 year ago
      kuzuri (small ears) , i don,t think it is taisho, it is not signed , no crackle, but i don,t see well

      Waki
    3. kwqd kwqd, 1 year ago
      Thanks, waki. You are right, no crackle. I did find a marked example and the mark is shown in image 3. It appears to be cold painted, so possibly scraped off of mine.
    4. Newfld Newfld, 1 year ago
      Beautiful sake bottle. Being white, the animal does look a bit like a polar bear
    5. kwqd kwqd, 1 year ago
      Thanks for your comments, dav2no1! Looks like there are only two sites for these and guessing one borrowed from the other. Doubt, wolverine since is it not native to any Asian country, except maybe Siberia.

      Thanks, Jenni! It does, doesn't it!

      Thanks for loving my sake bottle, mikelv85, Jenni, Drake47, fortapache, Blammoammo, Kevin, DejaVu2, dav2no1, Vynil33rpm, and Cisum!
    6. kwqd kwqd, 1 year ago
      Thanks, vcal and PhilDMorris!
    7. kwqd kwqd, 1 year ago
      Thank you kivatinitz and jscott0363!

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