24K Gold Kintsugi Ko-Imari Bowl | The Grape's Echo

Grapes in Cobalt Blue Ko-Imari porcelain was exported from Arita through the port of Imari to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, when its cobalt sometsuke designs influenced Western taste. Grapes are an auspicious motif: their full clusters symbolize abundant descendants, their spreading tendrils enduring fortune. On this white bowl with a narrow foot, they appear in two shades of cobalt blue. Kyoto Training in Urushi and Gold Over four months, Saki Moriyama restored this bowl, broken into fragments. A lacquer artist who holds a Master's degree in Lacquer Arts from Kyoto City University of Arts, she also trained in Kyoto's successor program in urushi craft and has received recognition for her urushi work. She rejoined the fragments with natural urushi and polished the foundation level. She then sprinkled 24K marufun (spherical gold powder) over the restored areas in the maki-e manner, sealing it with a thin coat of raw urushi into one durable layer. The roiro finish is where the greatest skill is asked of her: meticulous hand-polishing that leaves the gold with a rich, deep luster. Food-safe, the bowl remains suitable for the table. Grapes for a Growing House In Japan, full grape clusters evoke many descendants, while spreading vines suggest a family's continuing good fortune. Painted here in two cobalt blues, the motif now has a third flourish: gold branching like another tendril inside the well. That makes it a natural gift for a wedding, a birth or a new home, and a bowl that can be used, since it is food-safe, as well as displayed. To give it, or to keep it for your own table, is to pass on a wish for a flourishing house, carried in Ko-Imari porcelain and Japanese urushi artistry.