Kohiki sake cup c. 20th century

This is a Kohiki sake cup by Tsujimura Shirō, a contemporary Japanese artist. The cup embodies the principles of the Mingei movement, which valued the beauty of everyday, functional objects made by anonymous craftspeople. Tsujimura elevates the rustic aesthetic through the use of Kohiki, a Korean ceramic technique adopted and adapted in Japan. The roughly textured clay, the uneven milky-white glaze, and the subtle imperfections all speak to the artist’s conscious rejection of industrial perfection, a critique of the consumerist values in today’s society. The cup also references the Zen Buddhist concept of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of impermanence, imperfection, and simplicity. Tsujimura’s sake cup invites us to slow down, appreciate the handmade, and find beauty in the imperfect. To truly understand such a piece, a historian would need to research the Mingei movement, the history of Kohiki ceramics, and the philosophical underpinnings of wabi-sabi. Only then can we appreciate the depth and complexity of this seemingly simple object.