Building a Japanese Dinner Set: What to Buy in What Order

The Japanese table has long had a beautiful basic form called ichiju-sansai: rice, soup, one main dish, two side dishes. To lay this out beautifully and comfortably, ware suited to each is essential. Even so, plenty of people wonder where to begin with Japanese tableware, and what they actually need.

This article is for anyone about to start collecting Japanese tableware, covering the basic set to gather first, how to choose materials, and the character of each region, in practical and clear terms. Ware is not merely a tool but something that gives a table story and individuality. We hope you feel the pleasure of assembling your own ware, a piece at a time.

What the Basic Set of Japanese Tableware Is

When gathering Japanese tableware, it matters first to be clear about what you need. The minimum required to set an ichiju-sansai table is the following five kinds.

The Rice Bowl

The rice bowl is the piece you pick up most often, every day. A size and weight that settle into the hand, and a rim shape that meets the lips well, decide how it feels to use. A common size is 11–13cm in diameter, with men's bowls a little larger and women's somewhat smaller.

Earthenware conveys warmth to the hand; porcelain is light and easy to handle. Which you choose depends on taste and how you will use it, but for a first piece, value the feeling of "this one" when you hold it.

On how to choose a rice bowl, the articles below go further.

• How to Choose a Japanese Rice Bowl (Chawan)
• Japanese Bowls Explained: Chawan, Donburi, Matcha Bowl

The Soup Bowl

The soup bowl holds warm soup. Wooden lacquerware is traditional, but earthenware and porcelain versions are widely used too. A lacquer soup bowl insulates well, so the bowl itself does not become hot. It is also soft to the touch and meets the lips well, suiting daily use. → Urushi Lacquerware: How Japanese Lacquer Is Made

Earthenware soup bowls are often microwave-safe, an advantage in fitting contemporary life. Start with one, chosen to suit how you live.

The Individual Plate for a Main Dish

The meimei-zara is a plate for serving one person's food. It holds a main dish such as grilled fish, meat, or simmered fish, and 22–27cm in diameter is easy to use.

There are flat plates and rim plates with a little depth and raised sides. Deeper plates suit dishes with liquid; flat plates suit drier food. Japanese ware varies greatly in form and colour, so this is a kind where the pleasure of choosing widens. → Japanese Plates: Which Size and Shape for Which Dish

Small Bowls for Sides and Simmered Dishes

Small bowls hold side dishes, simmered food, and dressed vegetables. Around 10–15cm in diameter is easy to use, and the range of uses is wide. They divide into deeper bowls and shallower flat bowls.

Deep bowls suit simmered and dressed dishes; shallow bowls suit lighter sides and small servings of vinegared food. Having two or three lets you vary them by the number of side dishes.

Chopsticks and Chopstick Rests

Chopsticks are the most frequently used of all the tools your hands touch daily. Materials vary — bamboo, wood, lacquer. Choosing a length suited to your hand, generally around 23cm for men and 21cm for women, makes them easier to hold.

A chopstick rest is a small item but plays an important part in tightening the impression of a table. Setting out one favourite ceramic rest makes a table considerably more refined.

Choosing and Combining Materials

Japanese tableware comes mainly in four materials: earthenware, porcelain, lacquerware, and wood. Understanding each and enjoying the combinations is one of the pleasures of Japanese ware.

To enjoy choosing materials, knowing the differences between earthenware and porcelain matters. The articles below cover it.

• Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain: The Real Differences
• Stoneware vs Porcelain: How to Tell Them Apart

Earthenware and Lacquerware: The Warm, Classic Japanese Table

Combining earthenware with lacquerware is the most classical Japanese style. Set a lacquer soup bowl beside an earthenware rice bowl and individual plate and you get unity along with a contrast of materials, giving the table depth.

Earthenware is characterised by the quality of clay. Its surface has fine irregularity, and the more it is used the more its colour and texture change — the pleasure of a piece that grows. Lacquerware combines the warmth of wood with the gloss of urushi, long familiar on the Japanese table.

This pairing brings warmth to autumn and winter tables especially. We recommend it particularly to anyone wanting to recreate the settled atmosphere of a Japanese set-meal restaurant at home.

Porcelain and Wood: Cleanness Meets the Natural

Combining porcelain — white porcelain, sometsuke — with wooden chopsticks and rests gives a contemporary Japanese table where cleanness and natural warmth coexist.

Porcelain has a smooth surface that resists dirt and is easy to care for. Many pieces are microwave- and dishwasher-safe, suiting busy daily use. White porcelain lifts the colour of food and is versatile enough to suit any dish.

Combined with wooden chopsticks and trays it also suits Nordic interiors, producing a modern Japanese table. → Japandi Ceramics: Japanese Pottery in Minimal Interiors

The Aesthetic of Awase-zukai: The Pleasure of Not Matching

In the world of Japanese tableware, not matching everything is in fact sometimes held to be the aesthetic. Awase-zukai, combining ware of different regions, materials, and colours, gives a table individuality and rhythm.

A Mashiko ware clay rice bowl, a Wajima lacquer soup bowl, a Hasami ware porcelain plate, for instance — each piece's individuality lifts the others, and the table becomes something like a gallery. A matching set is not the only right answer; the pleasure of laying out pieces chosen one by one is the richness of Japanese ware culture.

Gathering by Household and Use

How much ware to gather changes with the shape of your life. Here it is organised by common situations.

Living Alone: A Minimal Set of Five

If you are gathering Japanese tableware while living alone, we recommend starting from these five.

• Rice bowl　×1
• Soup bowl　×1
• Main dish plate　×1
• Small bowls　×2, for side dishes
• Chopsticks and rest　×1 set

These five set up the basic ichiju-sansai structure. There is no need to buy expensive pieces from the start. Finding one favourite that feels like "this one," then widening from there gradually, is how building a collection lasts.

For a Couple: The Pleasure of a Pair

Living as two, you can gather two of the same piece, or deliberately choose a pair that differs in design while still feeling matched.

Rice bowls from the same region and the same glaze but in different colours — blue and white, say — bring variety to a table. A pair of lacquer soup bowls is a popular style as a gift too.

The sense of each person having "their own piece" brings a small richness to daily meals. Choosing ware itself becomes time the two of you enjoy together.

For a Family of Four: Unity With Variation

For a family of four, matching everything is difficult on cost and makes individuality harder to show. We recommend the style of matching the base and adding individuality with accents.

You might unify all four individual plates in the same design while varying the size and pattern of the rice bowls between adults and children. Or make only the soup bowls matching lacquerware for everyone and let the rest differ.

Dishwasher-safe porcelain is especially useful in a household with children. Meanwhile, keeping something like an earthenware rice bowl as "the adult's favourite" makes mealtimes a little more particular.

For Hosting: A Selection for Special Days

For guests and celebrations, preparing ware of slightly higher standing makes food look a level better. Keeping a few pieces aside for hosting — an Arita ware sometsuke plate, a set of Wajima lacquer bowls — means they are ready for important occasions.

Small bowls in particular are useful for appetisers and side dishes. Preparing chopstick rests for hosting alone raises the impression of the whole table setting considerably. The pleasure of choosing ware to suit your guests is another richness particular to Japanese ware culture.

Recommended Sets by Region

Japan's regions each have ware with different characteristics. Knowing their individuality makes it easier to find ware suited to your own table.

Hasami Ware, Nagasaki: The Standard for Daily Use

Hasami ware, made mainly around the town of Hasami in Nagasaki, is porcelain that developed as everyday tableware for ordinary people from the Edo period. The quality of its white porcelain is high, and designs in sometsuke blue painting and various overglaze colours are plentiful.

Many brands today use Hasami ware, with much of it simple and refined in design and reasonable in price. Dishwasher-safe pieces are plentiful too, making it the ideal region to start with for daily tableware.

Gathering a four-piece set of rice bowl, soup bowl, plate, and small bowl in Hasami ware completes a clean, unified table.

Mino Ware, Gifu: Value and Diversity

Mino ware, made in the Mino region of Gifu Prefecture, holds an overwhelming share — said to be around half of all Japanese ceramic production. Both earthenware and porcelain are made, and the breadth of design is very wide.

Its price range runs from reasonable to artist pieces, answering both those who want to gather a full set first and those looking for one particular piece. Many designs are universal enough for both Japanese and Western food, and the ware dissolves easily into daily life.

Arita Ware, Saga: Standing That Pleases as a Gift

Arita ware, made in the town of Arita in Saga Prefecture, is one of Japan's representative porcelains. It is characterised by the dignity of fine painting on translucent white porcelain, with a history of export overseas from early on.

It is highly popular as a gift, welcomed at weddings, housewarmings, and sixtieth-birthday celebrations. Gift sets are plentiful too — paired rice bowls for a couple, paired soup bowls.

It can give an impression of standing slightly high for daily use, but choosing simple white porcelain lets it settle naturally into an everyday table.

Mashiko Ware, Tochigi: Gathering the Warmth of Mingei

Mashiko ware, made in the town of Mashiko in Tochigi Prefecture, is earthenware following the current of the mingei movement, appealing for the plain warmth of clay. Substantial forms and plain glazes that seem to show the clay directly are characteristic, and the warmth in the hand creates an individuality nothing else has.

It carries the pleasure of ware that grows, its expression changing little by little with daily use, and is especially popular with those who love earthenware. Gathering rice bowls and small bowls in Mashiko ware brings the warmth of mingei to a table — plain, and rich.

Japanese Tableware Sets as Gifts

A set of Japanese tableware is welcomed as a gift on many occasions.

Occasions Where It Is Welcomed

• Weddings　A pair of rice bowls, or a set of two soup bowls, is the standard. A gift carrying the meaning of "ware the two of you will use" has a particular quality. Ware of standing such as Arita ware and Kyo ware is especially welcomed.
• Housewarmings　Giving a full basic set — rice bowl, soup bowl, plate, small bowl — is practical for a new home. A simple Hasami ware set suits any room and is easy to use, welcomed across a wide range of ages.
• Birthdays and anniversaries　We recommend choosing a single piece suited to the recipient's taste and way of living. Even one artist's rice bowl carries the giver's feeling when it has been carefully chosen.

Nokaze delivers japanese ceramics as gifts with real care. See below for what our gift service offers.

• For Gift｜Japanese pottery & culture
• Japanese Pottery as a Gift: What to Choose for Whom

The Basics of Caring for Japanese Tableware

To use the ware you have gathered for a long time, know the basic care for each material.

• Caring for earthenware　Earthenware has fine pores on the surface, so dirt seeps in readily. Performing medome before use prevents dirt and odour from soaking in. For new earthenware in particular, simmering in rice washing water or water with potato starch dissolved in it is effective. Wash soon after use and dry thoroughly — that is the basis.
• Caring for porcelain　Porcelain has fewer pores than earthenware and resists dirt. Many pieces are dishwasher-safe, a material that takes little effort in daily use. Painted porcelain can lose colour in a dishwasher, however, so check the product notes.
• Caring for lacquerware　Lacquerware is vulnerable to water; long soaking or a drying cycle can cause the lacquer to peel. Most cannot go in a dishwasher. Wash gently with a sponge after use, wipe the moisture away with a soft cloth, and then store. Direct sunlight is also an enemy of lacquerware — ultraviolet light can change the colour or cause cracking.
• Common points　Whatever the material, sudden temperature change damages ware. Avoid putting something straight from the refrigerator into boiling water, or cooling a very hot piece rapidly in cold water.

For care in more detail, see below as well.

• How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide

Gathering Ware Is Ordering the Way You Eat

Gathering Japanese tableware is not simply assembling tools. It is the practice of making the time you spend facing your meals a little more attentive.

Serving rice into a favourite bowl, holding a warm soup bowl in your hands, arranging a seasonal side dish in a small bowl. The accumulation of those small processes makes a rich way of eating.

There is no need to gather everything at once. Begin by finding one piece that feels like "this one." That one piece will change your table little by little.

The richness of regions, materials, and designs is the depth of Japanese ware culture. The white porcelain of Hasami, the warmth of Mashiko clay, the standing of Arita, the diversity of Mino — knowing each individuality and finding ware suited to your life is a rich pursuit that lasts a lifetime.

Do bring the beauty of Japanese food culture into daily life through ware. We hope the story of a piece joins your table.

Related Articles

Choosing by Type of Ware

• Japanese Tableware: The Complete Beginner's Guide
• How to Choose a Japanese Rice Bowl (Chawan)
• Japanese Plates: Which Size and Shape for Which Dish
• Japanese Ceramic Mugs: Why Handmade Changes Your Coffee
• Urushi Lacquerware: How Japanese Lacquer Is Made

Japan's Kiln Regions

• Japanese Pottery by Region: A Buyer's Map
• Arita Ware: Japan's First Porcelain, 400 Years On
• Mashiko Pottery: Where Japanese Folk Craft Still Lives
• Hasami Ware: Everyday Japanese Porcelain from Nagasaki
• Mino Ware Guide: Oribe, Shino and Japan's Biggest Kiln

How to Choose Japanese Ceramics

• Stoneware vs Porcelain: How to Tell Them Apart
• Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain: The Real Differences
• How to Care for Japanese Ceramics: A Practical Guide
• Seasonal Tableware in Japan: What to Use When

How to Buy Japanese Ceramics

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