At the intersection of modern design and timeless craftsmanship is where you will find Autotype. When these principles meet over something as quotidian as our morning mug of coffee, then we get really excited.
We love HASAMI PORCELAIN. The minimal, modern, and stackable designs would be eye-catching even if each piece weren't made by the hands of dedicated craftsmen. But knowing each piece is imbued with 400 years of craft takes our admiration to new heights.
HASAMI PORCELAIN was designed by Takuhiro Shinomoto of Tortoise in Venice, CA whose vision was to integrate modern tableware design with the organic quality produced by traditional Japanese manufacturing techniques.
You don't need to understand the properties of porcelain, or the centuries-old glazing techniques, or the finer points of Japan's artistic explosion during the Edo period to appreciate that HASAMI coffee mugs are definitional. They are the platonic ideal of a coffee mug. And not only is this true aesthetically, it is also true functionally. These mugs are durable, dishwasher safe, microwave safe, and they stack neatly into each other. They both look and perform EXACTLY as coffee mugs should.
Now layer on to that understanding the stunning fact that each piece is touched by no fewer than four sets of hands. Critical to the peerless nature of HASAMI PORCELAIN is the concept of specialization. One craftsman's lifelong pursuit of the local soil and stone and how to mix it leads to another craftsman whose life is devoted to molding and shaping. And on to another whose life's work is glazing and finally to another who fires the kiln. Generations of cumulative knowledge packed into a humble coffee mug. It boggles the mind.
