Kutani Ware Mug, Hand-Painted Wild Cherry Blossom Bird Coffee Cup 9 cm

A stoneware mug from the Kutani-yaki 九谷焼 tradition in Ishikawa Prefecture — distributed by Ino Shōhō (伊野正峰), a Kanazawa-area Kutani specialty distributor — hand-painted in iroe 色絵 polychrome overglaze with a yamazakura ni tori (山桜に鳥 — "bird on wild mountain cherry") motif. Kutani-yaki has been a METI-designated Traditional Craft since 1975; the line is one of Japan's brightest decorative traditions, defined by its dense overglaze polychrome enamels.

The motif is one of the classic spring pairings of Japanese decorative vocabulary. The cherry depicted is specifically yamazakura 山桜 — the wild mountain cherry whose white five-petal blossoms open simultaneously with the new leaves rather than waiting for them, and whose young leaves emerge a deep orange-rust colour. That orange-against-white-against-leaf is what tells you a Japanese painting is yamazakura rather than the more familiar Yoshino cherry (where leaves come AFTER the petals fall). The bird perched on the branch is rendered with a dark cap, slate-blue wings and very long tail feathers, a white throat, and a small orange-coral chest spot — a stylized songbird rather than a single identifiable species.

The body of the mug is a pale sage-green / asagi (浅葱) stoneware speckled with the natural grog of the clay (visible as small black flecks under the clear gloss). Rim and the top of the handle are finished in 鉄釉 (tetsuyū) iron-glaze drip — a dark warm-brown that frames the lighter body and softens the painted scene with a contrasting edge. The handle itself is a generous C-curve, sized for a full hand.

About this maker

Made by Ino Shoho / Kutani-yaki stoneware in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, curated by ZenKiln

伊野正峰 (Ino Shōhō) is one of the established Kutani-yaki specialty distributors in Kanazawa, supplying both commodity-tier and named-workshop Kutani production into the Japanese domestic and export trade. The specific producing kiln behind the K9- code on this piece is not separately disclosed by the distributor — the red square 九谷 seal on the foot is a ware-line cooperative cert rather than an individual potter's signature, which is standard practice for kiln-anonymous production in the wider Kutani trade.

Kutani-yaki itself began in 1655 at the village of Kutani in present-day Kaga (Ishikawa Prefecture) when the local Maeda clan, having identified suitable porcelain clay nearby, commissioned a kiln modelled on Arita's overglaze decoration. Production paused for roughly a century in the early 1700s — the "Old Kutani / Kokutani" period — then revived in the early 1800s under successive kilns (Mokubei, Yoshidaya, Iidaya, Eiraku, Shōza) that each developed distinct decorative idioms. The modern Kutani trade carries forward this five-colour gosaide tradition into both formal estate work and contemporary commodity tableware like this mug.

Use & care

A daily mug at home with coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or matcha latte — works equally well as a desk mug or a quiet morning piece. The iroe overglaze decoration concentrates on one face of the mug (rotate the handle to display the bird, or rotate it away when you want a quieter surface facing the room). Hand-wash recommended for hand-painted overglaze enamel — the polychrome decoration is not specified by the supplier as dishwasher- or microwave-safe on this SKU, so we default to conservative care. Avoid abrasive scouring on the painted areas and the iron-glaze rim.