Pair of Kiku-Masamune Sakazuki, Footed Porcelain Sake Cups Printed in Cobalt with a Chrysanthemum Spray, Marked Made in Japan and 菊正宗 — Brewery Cups from a House Brewing Since 1659, c. 1955–1970
Viridian Eclection
The Piece A matched pair of Japanese sake cups in white porcelain, printed in cobalt blue, and given away rather than sold. The form is a sakazuki: a shallow conical bowl flaring wide at the ri...
The Piece
A matched pair of Japanese sake cups in white porcelain, printed in cobalt blue, and given away rather than sold.
The form is a sakazuki: a shallow conical bowl flaring wide at the rim, set on a splayed pedestal foot so the cup is held low and the sake sits open to the air rather than closed in.
The porcelain is thin and very white, and it thins further toward the rim — hold one up and the light comes through.
Across the outside of each bowl runs a chrysanthemum spray in cobalt: one full bloom at the left with its petals drawn individually, then a long stem carrying four deeply cut leaves and finishing in a bare twig at the right. Beneath it, in clean Latin capitals, KIKU-MASAMUNE.
On the reverse of the bowl, the same name in Japanese: 菊正宗.
Inside each foot, within a fine blue ring, MADE IN JAPAN in three lines.
History & Provenance
Kiku-Masamune has been brewing sake since 1659, from Nada in Kobe — the district that has been the centre of Japanese sake production for three and a half centuries, because of its hard mineral water and its access to the port. The house is still operating. It predates the Bank of England.
The flower on the cup is not decoration. It is the name. Kiku is the Japanese word for chrysanthemum. The spray printed across the bowl and the word printed beneath it say the same thing twice, once in a picture and once in letters — which is why the drawing is a specific, botanically careful chrysanthemum rather than a generic blossom.
“Masamune” is the other half of the story. It was the name of Japan’s most celebrated swordsmith, and in the nineteenth century sake brewers adopted it so widely as a mark of quality that it became almost a suffix in the trade. Hundreds of brands carry it. Kiku-Masamune is among the few that made it stick.
These cups were never merchandise. Sakazuki printed with a brewery’s name were given away — with bottles, at festivals, to retailers and restaurants — which is why the brand sits on the outside of the bowl, facing away from the person drinking. The cup was not advertising to its owner. It was advertising to everyone at the table.
The form has a reason. A wide flared mouth opens the aroma and shows the clarity of the sake, which is the quality a brewer most wants judged; the pedestal foot keeps a warm hand off a cold cup and a cold hand off a warm one. It is the shape used for ceremony, for toasts and for shrine offerings, and it is deliberately not the shape of an everyday tumbler.
Dated on the mark: “Made in Japan” rather than “Nippon” places these after the 1921 US Customs ruling, and the absence of “Occupied Japan” excludes 1947 to 1952. The clean printed transfer and the standardised form place them in the post-war export and promotional era: c. 1955–1980.
Product Details
| Object | Pair of footed porcelain sake cups (sakazuki), brewery promotional |
| Quantity | Two cups, matched |
| Dimensions | Each approximately 2¾ in across the rim by 1¾ in high |
| Form | Shallow conical bowl flaring to a wide rim, on a splayed pedestal foot; thin translucent porcelain |
| Decoration | Printed in cobalt blue: a chrysanthemum spray with one full bloom, four leaves and a bare twig, above KIKU-MASAMUNE in Latin capitals; the same name in Japanese characters on the reverse |
| Marks | Inside each foot within a blue ring: MADE IN JAPAN. Brand name 菊正宗 (Kiku-Masamune) printed on the reverse of the bowl. |
| Brewery | Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewing Co., Nada, Kobe — brewing since 1659 and still in operation |
| Era | c. 1955–1980. “Made in Japan” rather than “Nippon” places them after the 1921 US Customs ruling; the absence of “Occupied Japan” excludes 1947–1952; the printed transfer and standardised form place them in the post-war period. |
| Condition | Good, and sound. No cracks, no hairlines, no crazing and no repairs to either cup. The porcelain is clean and white, the cobalt printing is crisp and unfaded on both, and both cups stand level. There are minor imperfections to the rims — small glaze flecks and nicks visible on close inspection, of the kind two cups acquire sitting together in a cupboard for decades. They are not visible at arm’s length and do not affect use. The unglazed foot rims show light shelf wear. Condition Guaranteed. |
| Availability | Sold as a Pair — 1 Set Available |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
Blue and white porcelain is the most forgiving decorative material there is, and these are the smallest useful unit of it.
At under three inches they go where nothing else fits and they never look out of place. Blue on white has sat comfortably in European, American and Asian interiors for four hundred years, which is a longer run than any other decorative scheme can claim, and a pair of small blue-and-white cups will work in a room you have not decorated yet.
They are useful well beyond sake. Rings and earrings on a bedside table. Paper clips and stamps on a desk. Salt and pepper, or two dipping sauces, at a table setting. Tealights, where the flared bowl throws the light up and out instead of trapping it. A pair of them on a shelf reads as considered in a way one alone does not.
They are also, still, sake cups, and they are good ones. The wide mouth opens the aroma, the pedestal keeps your hand off the bowl, and the thin rim delivers cleanly. Warm or cold, they do the job they were made for.
And they carry a genuinely long story on a very small object. A brewery that started in 1659 and is still going; a swordsmith’s name borrowed as a mark of quality; a flower printed on the outside of a cup because the flower is the name, facing outward so the people across the table could read it. Almost nothing else three inches wide has that much behind it.
Being a pair matters more than it sounds. Two of anything sets a table for two people, and a matched pair of small vessels is a considerably more useful object than a single one or an odd three.
A note on care. Hand wash in warm water and dry them. They will survive a dishwasher, but thin porcelain rims chip against other items in a rack, and a rim is exactly where these are most vulnerable.
Do not stack them or nest them. Porcelain rim against porcelain foot is how small cups chip in cupboards, and it is the likeliest explanation for the flecks these already carry.
Avoid sudden temperature change — do not fill a cold cup with boiling water — and keep them out of the microwave, which is unkind to thin walls and does nothing good for printed decoration.
If you use them for candles, use a proper tealight in its metal cup rather than pouring wax in directly. Wax in unglazed porcelain is permanent.
Every piece is packed with professional-grade materials: multiple foam layers, double-boxing, directional and fragile handling labels. For large furniture we use custom timber crating. We photograph packing before dispatch and can provide images on request.
White-glove delivery is complimentary within 100 miles of Reno, NV. National shipping quotes provided at checkout. All shipments are photographed and documented. Damage claims must be filed with the carrier; we provide all documentation needed to support your claim.
Local pickup is available at Viridian HQ (Reno, NV) with 2–4 days notice. Contact us to arrange. Private viewings also available.
All antique and vintage items are sold as described and all sales are final. Each listing includes detailed condition notes and photographs so you can make a fully informed decision. We encourage buyers to ask questions — about condition, dimensions, finish, provenance — before purchasing.
Antiques are irreplaceable and one-of-a-kind. Carrier handling is outside our control once a piece has left our facility, and major carriers including FedEx do not insure antiques. We do everything within our power to ensure safe transit, but cannot accept liability for carrier damage. If damage occurs in transit, we will provide full documentation to support your carrier claim.
Have a question? — we're happy to provide additional photos, condition detail, or discuss the piece directly.
