Berenda, Occupied Japan
Founded in Nagoya in 1904, Noritake created porcelain for Western tables, and pieces bearing the Made in Occupied Japan mark (1947–1952) remain sought after by collectors of its named patterns. Berenda is one of them: turquoise scroll borders, gilt ornament and floral cartouches set against ivory porcelain, carried across both cup and saucer.
A Painter's Line
Broken in two, the cup was restored over four months by Maki Mizuno, an urushi artist with a degree in Lacquer Arts from Kyoto City University of Arts. Working in natural urushi, she reunited the pieces, sprinkled genuine 24K gold powder in the traditional maki-e manner, and finished the seam through roiro, the highest grade of urushi finishing. Refined and polished by fingertip, the gold develops a deep, quiet luster. Along the saucer rim, she chose blue urushi rather than gold, matching the original style so the restoration settles naturally into the pattern instead of interrupting it; all restored surfaces remain food-safe. One golden seam rises beside the foot, crosses the ivory band, and continues across the interior.
Blue Border, Gold Crossing
This set brings together two living Japanese traditions: the Noritake porcelain lineage that created Berenda and the enduring urushi lacquer craft of authentic kintsugi that gave it a second life. Against ivory, the cup's fracture becomes a new line within the composition, answered on the saucer by blue urushi that reads almost as part of the original border. No other set could carry precisely this path, nor this conversation between gold and blue. To collect it is to become the next custodian of both traditions, carrying their story into a new home.
