A white porcelain coffee cup and saucer set made from Nagasaki Prefecture’s Amakusa pottery stone has been one of our classic items for over twenty years. We wanted to create a range of products using the same design with different types of clay, knowing that even the same shapes would be entirely transformed by the varying clays and glazes of each region. However, the whiteness of the Amakusa stone and the elegance of the thinly crafted handle are fundamental to the beauty of the simple, modern design of this long-selling coffee cup. We originally chose porcelain as a material, in fact, because of its superior hardness and the strength it imparts to thin, delicate forms compared to conventional pottery.
Clay, on the other hand, is made from earth, and Mashiko clay in particular is sandy, soft and dry. It is not easy to create delicate objects with this kind of clay, and the elegance of the Amakusa handle was particularly challenging to replicate. Nonetheless, this brown Mashiko-ware cup and saucer set proves a worthy match to the beauty of its white porcelain predecessor. To achieve the same shapes as the porcelain pieces, they were formed by hand and coated in Mashiko’s unique Ame glaze before firing. Despite being made from clay, the Asayake set has an air of lightness and strength enhanced by the distinctive luster of the Ame glaze.
