Japanese Soldier's Commemorative Sake Cup

The original porcelain cup is in very good collector's condition. Porcelain, decal. The diameter of the mouth is 55 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

Porcelain cups were made to order, and, as a rule, they have the name of the owner and the number of his military unit on them. The plots are fairly standard: battle flags, army stars, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums and paulownia. The Japanese cherry — sakura was often depicted, the flowers of which have long been considered a symbol of the samurai spirit. Sake is not just an alcoholic drink, but a part of Japanese military culture, and its use is included in military rituals. One of them was a sip of sake before the last flight.

As for the inscriptions, they are made in the Kanji alphabet used before 1946 and read the other way around — compared to the currently accepted Japanese script. This is another reason why cups with inscriptions are difficult to forge. Especially if the inscription is poetic — not all Japanese are familiar with this letter now.
There are cups with more interesting subjects — images of military personnel, tanks, guns. Sake cups were often made in the form of a helmet, and the base of the cup was relief images of shells, sakura flower or chrysanthemum.

Cups belonging to sailors and pilots are rare. They are more valuable because there were fewer sailors and pilots compared to the army personnel, and some of these cups rest with their owners at the bottom of the sea...

Wooden lacquered award-winning bowls are of particular interest to collectors. They became quite widely used after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Urushi in Japan is called both the lacquer tree (its Latin name is Rhus vermiciflia) and the technique of lacquer painting, as well as objects made in this technique.