25546 ITO Hokuto (sake cup)

Height 4.5cm

Diameter 6.2cm

Born in Nakano, Tokyo in 1961. Influenced by his father, who was a designer, he enrolled in the Department of Crafts at Tokyo University of the Arts. Attracted by the colorful use of colors by Yoshimichi Fujimoto (later the president of Tokyo University of the Arts and a Living National Treasure), who was a professor of ceramics at the time, he chose ceramics in his third year. After graduating from the graduate school of ceramics at Tokyo University of the Arts, he became Yoshimichi Fujimoto's apprentice. After Fujimoto's death, he built a kiln in Hino, Tokyo, and began his career as an artist. He is currently a full member of the Japan Crafts Council. He developed his own technique of underglaze carving, gold and silver glaze, and achieved brilliant colors that are unimaginable from the word ceramics. He has become even more highly regarded in recent years, with his work submitted to the 66th Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition being purchased by the Imperial Household Agency.

He established a unique technique called "glaze engraved colored enamel painting with gold and silver glaze," which produces deep and complex colors by repeatedly firing and layering the paint. He applies a copper-based glaze that produces a wine-colored color that he named Bordeaux glaze, and creates a fantastical world with his original drawings of birds, fish, and other creatures and plants.