Cheek Armor Cup, Crescent Moon Form, Black

Koga's popular Hoyoroi-hai (Cheek-Armor Cup) series, as its name suggests, mimics armor that fully covers the chin and cheeks — a unique sake vessel that makes the drinker appear to be donning armor as they sip.
The motif is the "kawari-kabuto" — the distinctively individual, unconventional helmets worn by warlords of the Warring States period. Koga was moved by the way these men, risking their lives on the battlefield, still competed in a uniquely personal sense of beauty — the impetus behind this work.

Among these, this piece is inspired by Date Masamune, an ultimate sake cup that took roughly five years from concept to completion.

Date Masamune, the "One-Eyed Dragon," was a flamboyant kabuki-mono who favored a crescent-moon helmet along with bold costumes and ornamentation, and a transformer of his era. There is a death poem said to have been composed by Masamune just before he died.

“Holding aloft the moon of an unclouded heart, I go forth lighting the darkness of this fleeting world.”
"Like finding one's way through pitch darkness by moonlight alone, his was a life spent walking on, relying solely on the path he believed in, through the uncertain tides of the Sengoku era."

As social media has developed, the present era has become one in which anyone can wield influence — an age of gekokujo (the low overthrowing the high), as Koga sees it. "If you have the will and resolve to open up the era, you can rise regardless of your origin." Through making {Hoyoroi Sakazuki}, Koga continues to send encouragement to today's high-minded warriors.