What we see here are two majestic superb Japanese Satsuma large baluster shaped vases on richly gilded base and with analogue lid. The one vase has a corpus with an ivory-colored background with “bleu soufflé” zones scattered over the surface, on which in the center a water landscape with reed is painted on an ivory-creamy light-crackled background and where five polychrome hand-painted figures stand or sit in a boat: a child and a woman, an elderly man with a mask, and two more women in the back of the boat. The woman in the front of the boat wields a butterfly safety net. High in the distance we see the round sun. At the top, the corpus is lined with a gilded round band, tapering into a cylindrical neck. The lower half is painted with a greyish-black strip with gold curls and the upper half is left blank. The neck turns into a spreading lip with a rounded edge. At the bottom it is painted with gilded stripes. On top there is a richly decorated round dome-shaped copper lid, completely shiny gilded, on which are embossed full of plastic roses and other flowers with foliage. At the bottom, under a gilded concentric band, we see a narrowing and expanding round base with the same decoration as the neck. The base rests on a high round rejuvenating trapezoidal copper base, completely shiny gilded, with abundant rocaille motifs. This vase is signed gilded. The other vase with identical design with identical lid and base. The corpus has an ivory-colored background with bleu soufflé zones in which a mountain landscape is polychrome hand-brushed in which, under a tree, a family is having a picnic and consists of father and mother, a handsome young man, a child and, somewhat aloof, a meditating young lady. Here too we see a full round sun high in the sky. Neck and base are identical to those on the other vase. At the bottom of the corpus, the vase is signed with a brown underglaze and hand-painted mark consisting of five characters one below the other on the right-hand side and four characters on the left-hand side. This mark is unknown to me. Can anyone help me with this? Both vases already radiate an art nouveau feeling. In my opinion, the vases were made at the end of the 19th century, so in the Meiji period.

Condition: both perfect.