How to Choose a Matcha Bowl | Size, Shape and Region

A matcha bowl, or chawan, is the bowl matcha is whisked and drunk from.

What separates it from every other piece on the table is that it is not only for drinking. You whisk inside it, raise the foam, and then put your lips to the same rim. It is a tool, a drinking bowl, and something to look at. Every dimension and every curve has a reason behind it.

This guide sets out how to choose a first bowl, along four lines: size, shape, region and season. It assumes you may simply want to whisk matcha at home rather than practise tea ceremony.

Size first. 12cm across, 8cm tall

A matcha bowl usually measures 11 to 13cm in diameter and 7 to 9cm in height. There is a reason for that.

A chasen whisk has a head roughly 6cm across, and you move it back and forth inside the bowl. Below 10cm the tips strike the wall and cannot travel, so no foam forms. Above 15cm a small amount of water spreads thin, and again the foam will not build.

Height works the same way. Too shallow and it splashes as you whisk; too deep and the whisk cannot reach the bottom. 12cm across and 8cm tall is a dimension arrived at by function, not by taste.

If you are unsure, take the standard. Of all the pieces in our guide to Japanese bowls, the matcha bowl has the narrowest range of workable dimensions.

The shape decides the season

Matcha bowls come in shapes used at different times of year. It is a practical classification, born out of the Japanese tea room.

• Tsutsu-chawan　Winter. Deep and cylindrical, so the tea stays hot. The narrow mouth also holds the aroma in
• Hira-chawan　Summer. Shallow and wide, so the tea cools quickly. The broad interior reads as cool to the eye
• Han-zutsu　Spring and autumn. Between the two, and usable all year
• Kutsu-gata　Deliberately distorted. Common in Oribe, and used with a chosen front

If you are going to own one bowl, han-zutsu is the easiest to live with, and adding a seasonal shape as the second is the natural way to build from there.

Choosing by region — Raku first, Hagi second, Karatsu third

The old ranking of tea bowls runs "ichi Raku, ni Hagi, san Karatsu". The ranking itself matters less than understanding why these three.

A bowl that absorbs water, as Hagi does, sinks in colour with use, and tea works into the crazing until the surface reads differently. This is called keinen-bika, beauty that comes with age, and it is one of the main reasons people choose a matcha bowl. You are choosing for how it will look in three years, not on the day it arrives.

Pieces from each region can be compared under Tea ware. Even within one category, clay and glaze pull them a long way apart.

Does the bowl change between koicha and usucha

In tea ceremony matcha is prepared two ways: koicha, thick, and usucha, thin.

Koicha uses more matcha and less water, kneaded rather than whisked, with no foam. It calls for a deeper bowl with a drawn-in mouth, and historically karamono or Raku were chosen. Usucha uses more water and is whisked to a full foam, so it wants a wider bowl with room for the whisk to travel.

At home, start with usucha. One standard han-zutsu will cover almost everything. Koicha can wait until you begin formal practice.

Using a matcha bowl every day

Treated as a tea-only piece, a matcha bowl sits idle. In practice it works hard.

• As a rice bowl　The standard size is close to a generous rice bowl. The weight in two hands is right
• For dessert　Ice cream, shiratama, anmitsu. The wide interior makes plating easy
• For soup　A tsutsu-chawan holds heat well and suits winter soups
• As a serving bowl　A hira-chawan is shallow, and makes simmered or dressed dishes look cool

If you are hesitating because you are not sure you will whisk matcha, choose it as an everyday bowl first. The surface will develop as you use it, and at some point you will want to try whisking. Either order works.

If you plan to use it for rice or as a serving bowl, comparing it against Bowls makes the dimensions easier to judge.

What to budget

Prices vary widely, which is where most people get stuck. Roughly, it runs like this.

Handmade bowls differ one to the next in dimension and surface, so even the same form by the same maker moves in price. Choosing one where the photographs show the foot ring and the interior narrows the gap between expectation and arrival.

Turn it over — reading the foot

When you pick up a tea bowl, always turn it over. The kodai carries the maker's habits exactly as they are.

Hagi has a tradition of cutting a notch into the foot, called wari-kodai. Raku is carved by hand and comes out irregular, with the marks of the tool still showing. A spiralling cut means the bowl was thrown on a wheel.

The tatatsuki, the flat face that meets the table, is wiped clear of glaze, so the bare body shows there. Red-brown means iron-rich clay; white means a porcelain body. The underside is more honest than the front.

How to tell a bowl that whisks well

In practical terms, check three things.

• Is the inside floor flat　If the interior is too rounded the whisk slides and the matcha clumps. A gently flat floor whisks well
• Are there steps inside　A sharp step collects tea. Run your hand around the inside to check
• Is the rim too thin　It feels good against the lip, but the whisk strikes it and it chips more easily

If you are practising within a school there will be its own rules, but for tea at home these three are enough.

Glaze and clay change how it drinks

Two bowls of the same dimension can feel entirely different at the lip. What decides it is the thickness of the rim and the glaze.

• A thick rim　More surface against the lip, and heat passes through slowly. Common in Hagi and Karatsu, and it drinks soft and round
• A thin rim　The tea reaches the tongue faster and the flavour reads sharper. Common in porcelain bodies
• A matte glaze　Kohiki or Shino, where the lip catches slightly. A bowl for drinking slowly
• A glossy glaze　Celadon or white porcelain. It slips, and the aroma lifts

Matcha is brewed at around 80C, lower than sencha, so how well the bowl holds heat shows in the taste. A tsutsu-chawan in winter is not only a seasonal gesture; it keeps the temperature to the last mouthful.

The whisk and the scoop

To whisk matcha you need a chasen and a chashaku as well as the bowl. A bowl on its own will not do it.

A chasen is bamboo split into fine tines, named by how many it has. For usucha at home, eighty tines is easy to handle and raises a good foam. More tines give a finer foam; fewer suit koicha.

A chashaku is the scoop. One scoop is about 1g, and usucha takes one and a half to two, koicha three to four. A teaspoon will do, but matcha clings with static, and bamboo handles it more easily.

A kusenaoshi, the stand a used whisk rests on, keeps the tines spread as they dry and makes them last. Kept beside the bowl, it quietly increases how often you whisk.

Deciding the front of a bowl

In tea ceremony a bowl has a front. The best face is turned toward the guest, and when drinking you turn it away from your own lips. It is a gesture of respect toward the object.

Even at home, deciding a front changes how you live with a bowl. Hold the kodai toward you and look for the face where the glaze and the kiln effects read best. The front the maker intended and the front you choose do not have to agree.

That habit of looking closely at one object is said to be the entrance to wabi-sabi.

First use and care

Bowls that absorb water — Hagi, Karatsu, Raku — benefit from medome before first use, which stops tea staining in one concentrated spot. Simmer gently in rice-rinsing water and let it cool in the pan.

After use, wash in warm water fairly soon and dry it fully before putting it away. Scrubbing hard with the whisk damages the glaze inside. A soft sponge is enough.

Raku is particularly fragile, so keep it out of the dishwasher and the microwave. Caring for Japanese tableware covers the rest.

When tea staining starts to show, soak in warm water and work at it with a soft sponge. Avoid bleach, which sinks into the crazing and stays there. On Hagi and Karatsu, tea staining is considered part of how the surface develops. Sometimes it is better not to remove it entirely.

Put it away completely dry. A water-absorbing bowl boxed while damp will grow mould. Left face-down overnight is reliable.

Choosing your first bowl

Put together, it comes to this.

• Size　Start at the standard, 11 to 13cm across and 7 to 9cm tall
• Shape　Han-zutsu, usable all year
• Region　Hagi to raise it, Raku for lightness and heat, Karatsu or Mino for surface
• Floor　A gently flat interior

Beyond that, decide by how it sits in your hands. A matcha bowl is held in both hands several times a day. As the phrase ichigo ichie has it, no two bowls are the same.

Related reading

Terms

• Kodai: The Foot Ring Buyers Check First
• Keinen-bika: Beauty That Comes With Age
• Medome: What to Do Before First Use
• Ichigo Ichie: One Encounter, Once in a Lifetime
• Glossary of Japanese Pottery Terms

Read further

• The History of Japanese Tea Ceramics
• Japanese Bowls: Rice Bowls, Donburi and Chawan
• Raku Ware: Tea Bowls Made Without a Wheel
• Hagi Ware and the Seven Changes
• Mino Ware: Where Oribe and Shino Were Born
• Reading Wabi-Sabi in a Single Bowl
• Caring for Japanese Tableware