24K Gold Kintsugi Early Noritake Tea Cup | Star Among Roses

Painted for the West Noritake, founded in Nagoya in 1904, made porcelain for Western tables. This cup bears the M-in-wreath JAPAN backstamp used from 1921 to 1941, when its hand-painted florals found their way into homes across the United States. Translucent porcelain carries a cream ground, a green rim band traced with gilt scrolls, and a bouquet of pink roses repeated inside the well. It is offered without a saucer. Gathered into a Star Broken into six fragments, the cup was restored over five months by Seisaku Nakajima, an urushi master whose restoration work includes Saimyō-ji Temple, a National Treasure site in Shiga. He reunited the pieces with natural urushi, building a smooth foundation through successive cured and polished layers. On that finished ground, he applied urushi with a maki-e brush, sprinkled 24K gold powder, and finished the seams through roiro, the highest grade of urushi finishing, giving the gold a smooth, deep luster. The cup remains food-safe. Outside, three lines descend the cream wall and meet at the foot; inside, they gather into a star in the well and radiate toward the rim. Bouquet Held in Gold Two living Japanese traditions meet in this cup: Noritake export porcelain and the urushi craft of authentic kintsugi. The fracture has become the design, gathering into a star in the white well before descending past the roses to the foot—a path no other cup could carry. In a collection, it carries both Noritake porcelain and urushi artistry into their next century; to welcome it into yours is to become the next custodian of both.