Cheek Armor Cup, Dragon Form, Bronze

Themed around the legendary Sengoku-era warlord Uesugi Kenshin, inspired by his nickname "Dragon of Echigo."
It is paired with “the Tiger of Kai,” Takeda Shingen, and this piece is rendered in a bronze-like finish.
This coloring cannot be achieved without the Amakusa stone from Kyushu that Koga uses as his porcelain material.

Among Koga's works, the highly popular “Hoyoroi-hai (cheek-armor cup).”
Taking the motif of the eccentric helmets (kawari-kabuto) of Sengoku-era warlords, it expresses a person's way of life and spirit.

Chanoyu, the tea ceremony, developed as a comprehensive Japanese art tied to samurai refinement. Sake vessels developed as kaiseki tableware inheriting that lineage.
Koga describes this work as "a porcelain sake cup in the form of cheek armor, arrived at inevitably from the close ties among the tea ceremony, Sengoku warlords, and craft — ceramics in particular."

740g