The banal wonder of Hasami
Hasami Porcelain is a Japanese brand that makes stackable mugs, plates, bowls, planters, and pourover drippers. You have absolutely seen it before. It speaks to the same sort of proportionality & versatility that Massimo Vignelli’s Heller dinnerware did back in the 60s & 70s, but it’s not made of plastic, and it feels both of the earth and of human hands.
Formerly the in-the-know tell of someone who knows the intersection between Danish comfort and Japanese geometric formalism, it is everywhere now. There is a tell, now, when you are in a place that purports to be fancy, when aspiration is conveyed, and it is Hasami Porcelain. Name a boutique, it has Hasami.
Hasami is a town that makes porcelain. Hasami Porcelain is a brand from Hasami that makes Hasami porcelain, and it doesn’t really look much like other porcelain from Hasami, nor does it contain the same design pedigree. This is not confusing at all for consumers, and I presume it’s totally fine and not at all annoying for other businesses from Hasami.
I have not resisted the siren call of Hasami Porcelain. As I write this, I am drinking sencha out of a Hasami Porcelain mug that I bought when I moved into this house in 2016. The edges are chipped from years in the dishwasher, and the dark brown glaze has a soft, shiny patina.
I know of so many other mug brands, done by punk artists, making more interesting stuff that speaks to me more deeply. I haven’t thrown these mugs away because it would be a waste to do so. Plus, I feel that I have a nice relationship with these, even as I resent how ubiquitous the brand has become, even as I now look at them and think how basic.
Is this the definition of a guilty pleasure? It’s pleasurable, and I feel guilty about it. Yes, it’s a high-design signifier. I own other high-design signifiers, but they speak in different tones, none of which say look at me, I went to a housewares boutique somewhere on Earth once. So now I am here, owning Hasami but not Hasami, wondering what I’ll replace these with if they ever break.