Sakazuki Culture: Military Cups and Drinking Games
Sakazuki are closely associated with formal rituals, but they have also played an important role in day-to-day culture as accessories to merrymaking.
During the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Japan fought in many wars, including the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), and World Wars I and II (1914–1918 and 1940–1945). During this period, it was a common custom for a returning soldier to give commemorative sakazuki like those displayed on the right to their parents or close friends as a celebration of their homecoming. Orders for these custom pieces helped support provincial ceramic industries, such as the one in Ichinokura.
The left side of the case displays bekuhai, oddly shaped sake cups that are used in drinking games. Some have no flat surfaces, or a hole that must be plugged with a finger. Cups like these cannot be set down without spilling their contents, forcing whoever uses them to drink what they are given. One game uses a set of three bekuhai in the shapes of three stock characters from Japanese folk culture. A player spins a top to see which of three cups he or she must drink from. The smallest cup, in the shape of Otafuku, the kind-faced goddess of mirth, holds only a sip, but the middle-sized cup, in the shape of the bumbling fool (hyottoko) has a hole in its base. Largest is the long-nosed tengu cup, which holds a sizeable portion and cannot be set down.
Other bekuhai have unusual or entertaining properties. One fountain-shaped cup will suddenly empty itself if overfilled. The flasks in the back are called “nightingale carafes” (uguisu tokkuri) because they make a noise like a warbling bird when the sake is poured.