This is an antique Japanese military commemorative vase, made of cast iron and decorated with a picture of a phoenix. The words on the back are "Showa 12th Year China Incident Expedition Commemoration" "Warship Hosho". Hosho, of course, was the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier in Japanese service. It survive WW2 and was scrapped after serving for repatriation duties. The name of the ship literally means "phoenix flying" which is why there's a phoenix on the vase.

Named ship items are fairly rare, and ones for actual military campaigns exceedingly so, especially for aircraft carriers of any type. This is a real piece of naval history.

Size: 9" tall, 7" at its widest, and 4" at the mouth

Condition: Excellent - no damage, but there's some rusting as is fairly typical of cast iron