
Made with techniques known to only three living craftsmen.
Among the phrases they don’t teach you in Japanese class is “Gohan sanbai ikeru.” While it literally means “I could eat three bowls of rice,” it’s often used by Japanese Internet users to comment on a picture of an attractive woman, with the intended meaning closer to “I’ll take a triple helping of that.”
So in essence, “Gohan sanbai ikeru” functions like a gentler, more gastronomically inspired version of “I’d hit that.” However, the designers at otaku merchandising organization Million Girls Project (also makers of upskirt umbrellas) have decided to meld the words’ literal and implied meanings with a unique piece of tableware that’s half sexy anime girl figure, half functional food bowl.
The finished product will feature Sumika Aoyama, an amply endowed character created by popular illustrator Coffee Kizoku, lounging inside the bowl (though she can also be removed from it, if you so desire). However, pouring hot curry roux or ramen broth onto the plastics customarily used for anime figures could cause the material to melt or warp. Because of that, the Figuwan (a combination of “figure” and “wan,” the Japanese word for “bowl”) will be ceramic in design.
Specifically, it’ll be made using a mix of Seto-yaki and Mino-yaki porcelain production techniques, a set of skills that Million Girls Project claims has been lost to all but three craftsmen in present-day Japan. As such, the Figuwan, which is 15 centimeters (5,9 inches) in length, bears a premium price of 39,800 yen (US$386), but with no similar dishware to compare it to, we can’t really say it’s overpriced.
Preorders can be made here, with the official start of sales scheduled for December 25.
Source: Character Japan
Top image: Million Girls Project (edited by RocketNews24)
Insert images: Million Girls Project
Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s having traumatic flashbacks to his high school ceramics class.


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