How do I know if my cup is a fake?
or
Why do I see duplicates of my supposedly
rare cup?
Here is what happens: You buy a sake cup with a pattern you have never seen before. You
pay what you consider to be a high price. The cup arrives; you are satisfied. Looks great on
display. Then--suddenly--you see an identical cup on ebay. Then another, then another. Soon
the price plummets and you wonder if what you had purchased was really authentic.
The above may have happened to you, but if not, it still has happened to many buyers. In fact,
it has happened to me as well. I had been looking for a spotlight unit cup for two years. I had
seen them in the past, but none had popped up recently. I waited...
When one appeared in a small group of cups, I paid a high price for it. Then, to my surprise,
this auction photo appeared recently on a Japanese auction site:
All the same design. And the same inscription as the rare one I had purchased. Then this
auction appeared:
Again, same design. I noticed that a couple of different sellers had similar auctions for multiple copies of
about five different designs. I investigated a bit and found that the sellers were actually one seller under
different names. So where did these cups come from? Were they fakes?

First, knowing how cups were made and sold will be useful. The shops made them in bulk, the most popular
patterns being made in greater quantities. After purchase the personal names and different regiment
numbers were painted on, either by hand or with a stamp. Since there were many cups made, of course
some went unsold. Many of these dead-stock items exist, but there are no sure ways to tell a dead-stock
cup from one that had been purchased. (These few hints suggest that a cup is not dead-stock: wear to the
base, fading in the paint, and most importantly, a personal name signed in the base or somewhere else on
the cup.)

Sometimes a hoard of dead-stock remains, and that is what happened in the case mentioned above,
according to the seller, that is. He said the lots came from the old warehouse of a sake shop. Yet one point
remains unclear. Although none have personal names, all are inscribed with a regiment number. Perhaps in
that area there were many soldiers from that regiment or perhaps a large order was placed but never
completed.

Another thing to keep in mind. Cups were often made in sets of three or five. Or they were bought in these
quantities. So I have often found two rare cups with the same patterns inscribed to the same person. This is
easier to explain than finding forty of the same once-rare patterns, of course.

So what about fakes? Are there any fake cups out there?

Well, we must consider first what a fake is. A fake is an item that looks like something rare, most often
made to make money. Replicas are copies made for those who cannot afford or cannot find an original.
There are a few common-sense reasons why Japanese military sake cup fakes are virtually non-existent.
(Click here to see one series of fake Kamikaze items.) Most compelling is the fact that most sake cups can
be bought for less than $20. And the labor involved in making a fake would not make it financially worthwhile.
In addition, there is only a small circle of sake cup collectors so the demand is also low. And if there are
people making fake items, where are all the rare items? The tank cups? The submarine cups? The Army
dog cups? etc.  When we see a duplicate (not a replica), it is usually of a common pattern: flags, helmets,
stars, and so on.

However, I suppose there is a chance of a fake or two being out there. It is hard to stand by absolutes. Yet I
must say that in the thousands of military cups that have gone through my hands, I have not suspected even
one of being fake--with the single exception of the obviously fake kamikaze items (see above link).
Military sake cups had a long history. They began to be made in large numbers around 1895, exploded in
popularity in 1904-5, and became a mainstay of discharge commemoratives after that. They surged again in
popularity with the military successes in Manchuria in 1931 and throughout the 1930s. Millions were made
and sold. Certainly there are too many authentic yet inexpensive items to make fake cups necessary.

If you purchase sake cups, you must accept that there are few unique items. If the pattern has been
stamped in, it is certain that a duplicate exists or has existed. The purpose of stamps was to make things in
volume, of course. And if you have a nicely embossed tokkuri, be sure that other tokkuri with the same
embossed design are out there. Embossed items were made from a mold, which was intended to make
more than one item. Unique items must be limited to the hand-painted ones, but even these designs were
copied (by hand) on other cups.

Still, some stamped patterns are very rare (tank items, for example) and some embossed items (like
Nikudan Sanyushi designs) are hard to find. The reasons vary, from a smaller amount having been made to
a large amount having been destroyed, for example. The best way to discover what is rare or not is keeping
your eye on the various sources such as ebay. Then you can get a feel for what is scarce and what is not,
and you can then decide how much to pay.

Clarification of terms

Fake  Modern item made to fool the buyer into thinking the item is genuine
Duplicate Authentic item that was originally made in quantities greater than one
Replica Modern item made to fill in for the authentic items until the latter can be acquired
All the same design, obviously made by the same kiln. Once they were sent to the shop, the shop
owner would have them inscribed with different phrases, according to the individual buyers.