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Maybe it’s a result of having lived in one too many apartments with a cramped kitchen, or just a desire to reduce the number of dishes I need to wash, but I’ve never really understood the point of tabletop egg cups. I can’t imagine eating hard-boiled eggs frequently enough, or giving them such prominent billing in my diet, that I’d need to go out and buy specialized kitchenware for them.

I find myself warming to the idea, though, now that someone’s designed egg cups in a way that lets tiny edible sumo wrestlers grace your table.

Despite their purely Japanese inspiration, the two-piece Sumo Eggs set isn’t being offered by an Asian company. Instead, the idea was hatched by Israeli interior goods brand Peleg Design and is available online here for US$16.99 from American retailer Animi Causa.

Before the eggs are placed, the cups appear as just a set of stocky legs and hips, wrapped in a mawashi, the traditional loincloth worn by sumo wrestlers.

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Drop in a hard-boiled egg, though, and you’ve now got two little grapplers.

▼ Although it’s not really tempting to get out a frosting pencil and draw faces on them.

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Those stocky thighs aren’t just there to match a real-life wrestler’s physique, either, as provide a stable base to ensure your eggs don’t tip over, which is fitting since in sumo whoever falls down first loses the match. This means you won’t have to worry about your egg falling onto the floor, although your own reserve of willpower is the only thing preventing the other problem that can keep you from actually eating your eggs.

▼ By which we mean giving into the temptation to smash the two combatants together until one of them is crushed.

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Source, images: Anima Causa
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