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…