Three Silver Cups from an Ancient Chinese Tomb, Now in Tokyo
Inside the Eisei Bunko, a small museum on a wooded slope in Tokyo's Bunkyo ward, the Hosokawa family collection runs heavily to samurai swords, Zen ink paintings, and modern Japanese art. Set against that, a group of three little silver drinking cups looks like an outlier. None of them stands taller than four centimetres. They were not made in Japan at all, but in central China, and they are said to have been buried in a royal cemetery there more than two thousand years before the Hosokawa lords ever collected them.
The three vessels are registered together under the plain name "Silver Cups" (ginpai). One is a shallow oval cup with two small wing-like lugs at the rim, a type that early Chinese drinkers called an "ear cup." The other two are shaped a little like a sliced gourd, with a grip worked out of the metal at one end. The cups were designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan on 25 May 1970, classified among archaeological materials.
What survives on them is worth looking at closely. On the ear cup, gilding still clings to the rim, inside and out, and to the bottom of the bowl, so that the silver catches a faint warm sheen where the gold has held. Each cup carries a few characters cut into its underside, and the smallest of the three also bears a longer line of seventeen characters along its flank.
A Find from Jincun, and Why It Matters
The cups are linked to one of the most famous and most troubled archaeological sites in China: the cluster of tombs at Jincun, near the old eastern capital of Luoyang in Henan Province. These were aristocratic and royal burials of the Eastern Zhou, the long age that ran from the eighth to the third century BCE and included the Warring States period. The Japanese record for the cups describes them as having come from a burial there traditionally known as the "tomb of the lord of Han," one of the contending states of that era.
That provenance comes with a caution. The Jincun tombs were opened not by careful excavation but by digging that began around 1928, after heavy rain collapsed part of a large chamber, and the objects were scattered through the antiquities trade to Canada, Japan, the United States, and beyond. Because so little was recorded at the time, much of what is called "Jincun material" rests on tradition rather than documented findspots, and specialists place the dispersed objects anywhere from the Warring States into the early Han. The wording used for these cups, "said to have been unearthed," reflects that uncertainty honestly.
Their value lies partly in the material itself. In early China bronze was the metal of ritual and rank, and silver vessels were comparatively rare and costly. From roughly the sixth century BCE, Chinese craftsmen began dressing metalwork with gold and silver inlay and with gilding, chasing after richer surfaces. These three cups sit inside that story. Two were cast, one was hammered from sheet silver, and the gilding and the inscriptions make them documents of technique as much as objects of luxury.
What to Look For
Start with the differences in how the cups were made. Two of them were cast, the metal poured and worked into shape; the third was raised by hammering, a thinner and more demanding approach. The hammered cup is also the most elaborate. Its grip has been drawn out into a proper handle, and on either side of the opposite end hang small loose rings that move when the cup is lifted.
Then the gilding. On the ear cup the gold has lasted best along the lip and across the inner floor, the places a drinker's fingers and lips would have touched, and it gives the plain silver an unexpected glow. The two gourd-shaped cups are quieter, their interest in the line of the silhouette and the way a thumb would settle into the worked grip.
The inscriptions reward a slow look. Short groups of three characters are cut into the bases, and the seventeen-character line on the smallest cup runs along the side. Parts of these marks have never been fully read, and scholars think they note practical information about the vessels, their weight among it. Standing in front of the case, you are reading the same puzzle that has occupied curators for decades.
The Museum and Its Setting
One practical point matters before you plan a visit. The silver cups are part of a working collection, not a permanent display. The Eisei Bunko mounts changing exhibitions on set themes, so the cups appear only now and then, when a show calls for them. Anyone hoping to see these particular objects should check the current exhibition before setting out, and photography inside the galleries is not permitted.
The building is itself part of the appeal. It served as the administrative office of the Hosokawa family, lords of the Higo domain in present-day Kumamoto, and it stands on the grounds of their former Tokyo residence. The collection was established in 1950 by Hosokawa Moritatsu (1883 to 1970), a serious collector of Chinese antiquities and of Japanese painting and calligraphy, and the silver cups belong to that side of his interests.
Just below the museum lies the Higo Hosokawa Garden, a strolling garden with a pond fed by the Kanda River, free to enter and easy to combine with a museum visit. The steep lane beside it, the Munetsuki-zaka, climbs the slope the old domain residence once commanded. A short walk away are the gardens of Hotel Chinzanso and the Wakeijuku, a student hall built within another former Hosokawa estate. The quarter rewards an unhurried afternoon on foot.
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Q&A
- Can I see the silver cups whenever I visit?
- Not always. They are collection pieces shown only in occasional themed exhibitions, so check the Eisei Bunko's current programme before you go. The museum is open from 10:00 to 16:30, with last entry at 16:00, and closed on Mondays, during exhibition changeovers, and over the New Year holiday.
- Where did the cups originally come from?
- They are said to have been unearthed at Jincun, near Luoyang in Henan Province, China, from an Eastern Zhou tomb. Because the site was dug irregularly in the late 1920s and the objects dispersed through the art trade, the provenance is traditional rather than fully documented.
- What is an "ear cup"?
- It is a shallow oval drinking cup with two small flat lugs projecting from the long sides, like a pair of ears or wings. The form was common in early China for serving wine, and one of the three Eisei Bunko cups is of this type, with gilding still visible.
- How do I reach the Eisei Bunko?
- It is about a 15-minute walk from Edogawabashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line, or from Waseda Station on the Tozai Line. A city bus from Mejiro Station also runs nearby, as does the Bunkyo community bus.
- What else is worth seeing close by?
- The Higo Hosokawa Garden sits directly below the museum and is free to enter. The gardens of Hotel Chinzanso and the Munetsuki-zaka slope are a short walk away, making for an easy half-day around the old Hosokawa grounds.
Basic Information
| Name | Silver Cups (Ginpai) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-1-1 Mejirodai, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo (Eisei Bunko) |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (archaeological materials), designated 25 May 1970 |
| Quantity | 3 cups (one cast silver gilt ear cup; two gourd-shaped cups, one cast and one hammered) |
| Approx. dimensions | Ear cup: length 12.2 cm, height 3.9 cm; cast gourd cup: length 11.0 cm, height 3.2 cm; hammered gourd cup: length 12.8 cm, height 2.2 cm |
| Origin | China; said to have been unearthed at Jincun, Luoyang (Eastern Zhou period) |
| Keeper | Eisei Bunko |
| Viewing | Shown only in occasional themed exhibitions; not on permanent display. Photography prohibited |
References
- Database of National Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Silver Cups
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/9927
- Cultural Heritage Online (NII) — Silver Cups
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/187482
- Eisei Bunko (Bunkyo City guide)
- https://www.city.bunkyo.lg.jp/b014/p003842.html
- Eisei Bunko (GO TOKYO)
- https://www.gotokyo.org/jp/spot/436/index.html
Last verified: 2026.06.13