Japanese Imari Sake Cups

Bought 4 of these Japanese Imari high footed porcelain sake cups. All hand decorated. All stand 1 5/8" tall and measure 2 1/4" across the top. Can anyone tell me how old they might be?

 

@kraftblue nice little set. Two things on the age, one you can check yourself in about a minute and one that comes out of the sold market.

First the label, because it changes what you search. I do not think these are Imari, at least not in the sense that word usually gets used. Imari means cobalt painted under the glaze and fired under it, then iron red and gold added on top. I cannot see any underglaze blue on yours. The blue in those little banded motifs looks like it is sitting on the surface with the greens and blacks, same level as the red. Red ground, white reserved chrysanthemums and peonies, gold karakusa scroll over the red: that combination is the aka-e family, and on the export market it gets listed as Kutani or Kutani style far more often than as Imari.

The minute long check, in order of how much each one settles:

1. Turn one over and look at the foot. A mark decides most of this. Nippon means 1891 to 1921. Made in Japan means 1921 onward. Occupied Japan is 1947 to 1952 and nothing else. A red hand painted kanji mark, or nothing at all, leaves it open, because after 1921 the country name was often only on a paper label that came off in the first wash.

2. Hold one up to a bright window and look through the bottom of the well. In your fifth photo one of the cups shows a faint pattern in the porcelain around that raised center dot. If an image appears when the light is behind it, that is a lithophane, and a lithophane on a sake cup is a 20th century export feature rather than a 19th century one. The Kutani cup sets that sellers date to the 1950s carry exactly that.

3. Look at the foot rim for an unglazed gritty ring versus a clean glazed one.

Now the money, since you bought four and that is usually the next question. eBay sold, last 90 days:

Searching Imari sake cup mostly returns current kiln production rather than old stock. Hasami ware, Hayashi Kuro kiln, sold as Old Imari style, closed five times this month alone at $47.24, $47.24, $47.24, $47.34 and $47.46 (15 and 17 Sep 2026). Those are new cups being made today. The genuinely older ones in the same search: Arita faceted mentori cup $54.00 (8 Aug), Koransha Old Imari cup set $30.00 (3 Jul), Imari style set of 4 gold gilt $19.99 (26 Jul), pair of Imari Dynasty cups $10.00 (26 Aug), Arita sake set of 2 carafes and 5 cups $13.37 at auction (16 Jul).

The search that matches your look, Kutani sake cup set: 25 closed sales, $15.99 to $307.00, median $39.99. Cups on their own, no bottle, live in the bottom half of that. Set of 5 guinomi Mt Fuji $29.99 (12 Sep), hand painted geisha gold set $19.99 (10 Sep), Takase set of 4 dated 1950s $50.00 (4 Sep), set of 4 with the wood box $19.99 at auction (3 Aug), set of 6 floral gilt $39.99 (28 Jul), signed geisha set of 5 $15.99 (30 Jul). What lifts a set above that band is a tokkuri with it, the original box, or a kiln name: whistling bird sets with the decanter ran $42.00 to $84.00, and a Senshun set took $307.00 (9 Sep).

So unless that foot carries a mark naming a kiln, four stem cups sit in the $20 to $50 neighborhood whichever side of 1921 they turn out to be. One caution from the same rows, the two whistling bird decanter sets: $42.00 buy it now on 13 Sep against $25.00 at auction on 24 Aug. Same object, different format, nearly half the money.

One limit worth saying out loud. None of those 38 rows is a footed stem cup like yours, they are all the ordinary ochoko shape, so treat the numbers as the neighborhood rather than your exact comp. Post a photo of the underside of one foot and I will run whatever mark is there specifically.

 

Tagsale, thanks for all this info. In picture 5, those are not lithopanes, you are seeing the flowers on the other side. The foot is dry and unglazed. All cups are unmarked.