KOUSYUHAI Cup (Small), Japanese Rice Fish Medaka

At a glance

- Arita-yaki (有田焼), Saga Prefecture; by Kihara (キハラ), Arita
- Hand-painted medaka (メダカ) rice fish in red overglaze; applied and fired in a second stage
- Small (100ml); fragrance-concentrating interior; hand wash recommended

A cup quiet enough that the fish seem to be swimming through it undisturbed.

The medaka (メダカ, Japanese rice fish) are painted in red overglaze on a white Arita porcelain body: small, swift strokes that capture the fish mid-movement. In Japanese folk tradition, medaka swimming in clear water carry associations of abundance and the unhurried pleasures of everyday life. Here they are scattered freely across the surface, each one placed by hand, no two cups looking quite the same.

The Kousyuhai (香酒盃) is Kihara's Arita-yaki cup developed with Kyushu distillers around the experience of fragrance: an inwardly curved interior that draws aroma upward as you raise the cup, a narrowed rim that holds it contained. At 100ml, the S size is precisely the right amount of sake or a fine spirit when the point is to taste rather than to finish.

The red overglaze is applied after the main porcelain firing and fixed in a second lower-temperature kiln, giving the fish a warmth and luminosity that sits above the glaze surface rather than within it. Hand wash recommended to preserve the overglaze painting.

Made in Arita, Saga Prefecture.