Hand-painted ceramic rice bowl, produced by Keith Haring for the opening of his Tokyo-based Pop Shop. Signed and dated by the artist verso. Haring writes about the creation process at length in his journal on October 27, 1987: "We were supposed to take two hours to choose the shape of rice bowls I wanted to do and paint some samples. I ended up taking four hours...Some I did with figurative patterns that made the rice bowls look more African or Indian than Japanese, and some I did with real simple fish paintings. The more I painted, the more I learned how to control the glaze pigment on the clay surface, the more 'into it' I got, the less I wanted to leave...I really love to work. I swear it is one of the things that makes me most happy and it seems to have a similar effect on everyone who is around me while I work..."