Attractive Meiji period Japanese Kutani vase c1900. The vase is of baluster form with cupped rim. Characteristic iron-red and gilt overglaze decoration known as Akae Kutani or Lidaya style. Floral and foliate decoration around its body with birds (which were a popular Kutani motif) - one side decorated with a long-tailed cockerel and the other with a group of humming birds in flight. A particularly elegantly painted Kutani vase. Painted marks to bases including the Kutani characters (九谷) and also signed Watano Sei. The vase is 30 cm in height.
 
The word Kutani means Nine Valleys and is the name of an area and a village. Kutani ceramics are divided into two phases: Ko-Kutani (old Kutani), from the 17th and early 18th centuries, and Saikō-Kutani from the revival of production in the 19th century - primarily for export. Ko-Kutani was decorated in typical polychrome colours (and are very rare) whilst in the 19th century the style shifted to a more red design called Akae Kutani or Iidaya style.