cup

Object Name5 Piece Sakazuki Cup Set

Manufacturer Satsuma Clan Factory

Made FromGlass

Dateabout 1857

TechniqueBlown, cased, cut

SizeOverall H: 15.9 cm, Diam (max): 11.9 cm

Accession Number55.6.18 C

Credit LineGift of Asahi Glass Company

Curatorial Area(s)

Modern

Exhibitions

A Glittering Interlude: Visions of Satsuma-kiriko

East Meets West: Cross-Cultural Influences in Glassmaking in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

In mid-19th-century Japan, luxury glass produced in Satsuma province was a major source of revenue. The province’s powerful leader, Nariakira Shimazu, encouraged the development and production of glass of high artistic quality. Red and dark blue were popular colors for luxury wares. On early examples, the cutting is “soft” and not highly polished. Later products, such as this sakazuki set, are sharply cut and highly polished. This set of three graduated and nested sake cups (with an accompanying glass stand) was cut from colorless glass covered with a dark blue overlay. It was reserved for ceremonial occasions, such as New Year celebrations and weddings. Sake, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice, is the drink of the gods of Shinto, the native religion of Japan.

Place Made

Japan, Kyushu-chiho, Kagoshima, Shuseikan

Physical DescriptionColorless glass with dark-blue overlay, lead glass; blown, partially cased and cut. Three cups, graduated in size; identical flared bowl shapes; colorless rims; blue overlay of bowls cut in cross-hatched diamond shapes, with uncut blue between bowls and slightly out-flared, colorless foot rims; level bases; two-part glass stand for the nested cups: supporting the cups, a saucer-like form with loped edge of colorless glass rimmed with blue, surmounting a band of closely cross-hatched blue overlay and a collar-like foot of blue flanked by narrow bands of colorless glass; a three-footed pedestal base, with rounded disk of blue glass curving inward and downward to an opening into which part of the stand fits; below; two narrow bands of colorless glass flanking one of blue; a band of diamond shapes cut in blue glass and cross-hatched; the whole terminating in a tripartite foot of arched forms of plain colorless glass, each incased with five incised, horizontal lines, terminating in dark-blue lobed feet.
Provenance

Provenance Remark

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