Porcelain brand YOYOYO will release a ¥1m ($6,000 USD) Sonic the Hedgehog sculpture made from Arita ware on October 9th, with only 50 pieces available worldwide.
According to an announcement, the piece is titled Sonic the Hedgehog Arita Ware 'Infinite Blue' and was made to mark the 35th anniversary of Sonic, the mascot of Japanese video game publisher Sega. It costs ¥1m in Japan with tax and shipping included. Overseas buyers will pay $7,000 before customs duties, taxes and shipping.
Arita ware is a style of Japanese porcelain with a history of around 400 years. It takes its name from the town of Arita, which the release calls the birthplace of Japanese porcelain. To recreate Sonic's colour, the sculpture uses gosu, a cobalt pigment painted beneath the glaze, which YOYOYO said gives Sonic's 'world's fastest blue' a finish that will not fade.
The two kilns behind Infinite Blue
Two kilns with roots in Arita worked on the piece. The design and sculpting came from 224porcelain, a studio that pairs Hizen Yoshida ware (a regional tableware tradition also dating back around 400 years) with 3D printing and other digital tools. Painting and finishing were handled by Riso Kiln.
Riso Kiln stands on the site of the former home of Lee Sam-pyeong, a potter the release refers to as the father of Japanese porcelain. Its fourth-generation owner, Shinji Terauchi, rebuilt the kiln's underglaze blue style after being inspired by unearthed pottery fragments. According to the release, its tableware is used by restaurants and hotels in Japan and abroad, including Gaggan in Bangkok and Mugaritz in Spain.
How the sculpture was made
According to the release, production took around eight months from start to finish. The sculpture's thin, crossing lines trace Sonic's outline along with an infinity-shaped trail, and his legs appear to float in mid-air. Porcelain stretched this thin is prone to warping and cracking in the kiln, so the team went through repeated rounds of moulds and test firings before the design held together.
A single craftsman can shape only one or two pieces a day, and some do not survive the clay stage. Painters outline each pattern with a fine brush before layering the cobalt over it. The blue itself is a blend of pigments from Fukami Shoten, a paint supplier in Arita, mixed by Riso Kiln specifically for this piece.
Three traditional Japanese patterns cover the curves of the sculpture. In the release, the linked circles of Shippo stand for power and the layered waves of Seigaiha represent adventure, while Yagasuri, an arrow-feather motif, is meant to reflect Sonic always pressing forward. The infinity trail is picked out in red enamel, a traditional Arita technique fired on top of the glaze.
Where to buy the Sonic sculpture
The finished sculpture will go on display at SONIC the Exhibition -ACROSS GENERATIONS-, which runs from October 9th to November 1st at PARCO FACTORY in Tokyo's Ikebukuro PARCO Main Building. Five units will be sold at the venue on a first-come, first-served basis.
The first round of an online lottery opens on the YOYOYO Official Store the same day. Applications run from 10 AM Japan Standard Time (JST) on October 9th until 11:59 PM JST on October 18th, with one entry allowed per person.
Each sculpture measures 15.6cm wide, 22.8cm deep and 21.3cm tall, and comes with an edition number, a certificate, a base and a wooden box. Pieces are made to order, so delivery could take up to around 10 months after the order deadline. Shipping covers 12 regions, among them Japan, South Korea, the US, the UK and EU member states.
YOYOYO's second limited release
YOYOYO describes itself as a global porcelain brand that mixes traditional Japanese crafts with anime and games. The release was issued by Marukyu, a company based in Saga City.
Infinite Blue is the brand's second product. Its first was a Tachikoma figure from Ghost in the Shell made in Nabeshima ware, which launched in January as another 50-piece run. In April, Marukyu announced that the Tachikoma pre-order batch had sold out and that global sales had expanded to 11 countries.
