Plates, small dishes, and the pottery styles behind them. How to choose, use, and care for authentic Japanese tableware — from Mino to Arita — without the mystique. Written from Japan.
Walk into a tableware shop in Japan and count the dishes. Small plates come boxed in fives. Teacups come in pairs. You will look for a long time before you find a set of four, and once you know why, you cannot unsee it: shi (四) is four, and shi (死) is death. That is…
A shop listing says “Mino ware” and stops, as if the name has answered something. It hasn’t. What a regional name actually encodes is two physical facts — what the clay is made of, and how hot it was fired — and those two facts decide almost everything you will care about later: how heavy…
How the Japanese table changes through the year: spring pastels, summer glass, autumn earth tones, winter warmth — and how to do it with a few pieces.
The soba choko is a small Edo-era cup that does a dozen jobs: dipping sauce, tea, side dishes, dessert. History, size, uses, and how to choose a set.
A practical guide to Japanese chopsticks and the chopstick rest (hashioki): how to size them, the etiquette that matters, materials, care, and what to buy.
The short answer: most Japanese porcelain bowls with no metallic decoration are microwave- and dishwasher-safe, while many earthenware and rustic stoneware bowls are not. Any bowl with a gold or silver rim should never go in the microwave, and hand-washing extends the life of almost everything. The rest of this guide shows you how to…
A well-made Japanese bowl is tougher than it looks, but it does keep asking for small attentions. Most of what people call “delicate” about Japanese ceramics is really just unfamiliarity — a handful of habits that are second nature in a Japanese kitchen and easy to miss everywhere else. Learn them once and a good…
From sushi-zara and long nagazara to wooden geta boards and the small soy dishes that complete the setting — how to choose plates and serveware for sushi at home.
Mamezara, kobachi, and kozara are the small dishes that make a Japanese table feel considered. Here is what each is for and how to start a collection.
Pouring sake for someone else, and letting them pour for you, is one of the small courtesies that makes a Japanese meal feel like an occasion. The vessels that make it possible are simple: a little flask and a set of tiny cups. Together they are a sake set, and choosing a good one is…