A set of five Ko-sometsuke (Transitional blue-and-white porcelain) tea cups, fired during the late Ming to early Qing period. The cups possess the refined form characteristic of transitional blue-and-white wares produced between the Chongzhen and early Kangxi reigns (c. 1630s–1680s), with gently flaring rims and a bluish-white glaze of luminous clarity. The surfaces are decorated with plum blossom motifs rendered in stippled dots, accompanied by small birds sketched in swift crossed brushstrokes. The spontaneity of the potter-painter’s hand remains vividly present, imparting an unusual sense of animation to the design.

In Japan, this pattern is commonly known as the nazuna-mon (“shepherd’s purse pattern”), yet the circular dots are more plausibly understood as abbreviated depictions of plum buds. The original intention of the Chinese decorators was likely to evoke the cultivated poetic associations of blossoming plum trees, a favoured subject of literati culture. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the appreciation of sencha flourished in Japan, cups of this type were imported through the Chinese trading community of Nagasaki and came to be prized by tea enthusiasts as embodiments of late Ming literati taste. Though modest in scale, these vessels retain something of the atmosphere and refinement associated with the scholarly culture of the late Ming world.

Three of the five cups exhibit minor chips and several very short hairlines, with the chips applied in the Kintsugi restoration. Apart from the minor glaze losses characteristic of Ko-sometsuke wares, there are no notable defects, and the overall condition is generally good. The set is accompanied by a shifuku drawstring pouch and a storage box, both showing signs of age and wear; the cord of the shifuku has been replaced.