This vase was bought by its donor at the Japan-British exhibition held in London's White City in 1910. It is one of a substantial group of Japanese ceramics from this exhibition reticently accepted as a gift from Kenneth Dingwall at a time when the V&A had made a conscious decision to no longer collect modern Japanese artefacts. The Makuzu workshop was established in Yokohama, one of the main portals of trade with the West, in 1871. It initially produced Satsuma-style pottery painted in polychrome enamels and gold, but during the 1880s it focused increasingly on the making of porcelain, often in Chinese styles. In the case of this particular vase, however, and its masterful demonstration of crystalline glaze technology, it is more likely that the source of inspiration was contemporaneous works sold, at very high prices, by the Royal Copenhagen Manufactory.