Mamezara and Small Plates: Sizes and What to Serve
The Japanese table is not built by setting down one large plate. It is built by lining up several small plates and bringing the whole together. Pickles on a dish the size of a coaster, salt on something smaller still, a single sweet on a saucer holding nothing else. Once the small plates make sense, the rest of Japanese tableware comes into view.
And small plates are the cheapest way into handmade ware. A small plate thrown on the wheel by a maker starts at around 1,300 yen. For the price of one large plate you can have four plates by four makers.
Sizes, and What Goes on Them
Japanese ware is measured in sun. One sun is 3.03cm, so a four-sun plate is about 12cm across. Small plates sit below that, and the name changes with the size rather than the shape.
| Name | Diameter | What goes on it |
|---|---|---|
| Hashioki (chopstick rest) | 5.5–7cm | Chopsticks, a knife and fork. Keeps the tips off the cloth |
| Mame-mamezara (tiny mame plate) | About 6–7cm | Coarse salt, a little wasabi, three capers. Almost pure gesture |
| Mamezara | About 9cm, three sun | Pickles, dipping soy sauce, a single sweet, olives |
| Kozara (small plate) | 9–12cm, three to four sun | A side dish, cut fruit, cheese for one, a slice of cake |
Past 12cm you are in everyday plate territory and the logic of choosing changes. Which size suits which dish is set out in choosing a Japanese plate, and sun to cm in the conversion chart.
Why Makers Put Their Boldest Work on the Smallest Plate
This is the part people find surprising. The cheapest plate in a maker's range is often the most adventurous. Mamezara and small plates are where character comes out most, and where the buying side most wants to collect.
A glaze that does not run as expected is a failure on a large plate and a highlight on a mamezara. A form thrown deliberately off center looks like a mistake at 24cm and like intent at 9cm. Firing is the same: a spot in the kiln too precious for a large piece will take a small one.
Which is exactly why small plates gather foliate rims, carved faces, and hand-painted sometsuke small enough to finish in one breath.
- Rinka and ryoka (foliate and lobed rims) An edge cut in petal shapes. Because it is cut before firing, glaze pools in the notches and darkens there.
- Shinogi Faces shaved into the side with a blade. Shinogi makes a piece patterned by hand. On a large piece you could not count the ridges even if you wanted to; on a 12cm four-sun plate you can, and that is a pleasure of its own.
- Sometsuke Indigo painted under the glaze in gosu cobalt. Small floral motifs are drawn by hand, so no two are alike. Painted work can be hard to choose on a large plate, but on a mamezara or small plate you can play, and the choosing gets richer.
How Many Mamezara and Small Plates Settle a Table
Most people buy one and notice afterwards: small plates get better the more of them there are, and the table grows richer for it. A single mamezara on a table looks like something left over. Three, in different glazes, with three different things on them, and the table becomes something else entirely.
The prices are reasonable and easy to buy into, which is another reason that once you learn to play with mamezara and small plates, choosing ware gets a great deal more fun.
| Combination | Guide price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Two chopstick rests | 1,760 yen | A table for two stops looking bare straight away |
| Three mamezara, mixed | 4,000–7,000 yen | Pickles, salt and dipping soy sauce, each on its own |
| Four small plates, one each | 7,000–13,000 yen | Side dishes, or dessert for four |
And the point is to choose from different makers rather than buy a matching set. The Japanese table is not built in sets. A porcelain chopstick rest from Mino, a shinogi plate from Shigaraki, a painted plate from Kyoto — mixing styles is the heart of it. Choose that way and there is another advantage: break one and nothing is ruined.
If You Are Buying While Traveling, Buy Mamezara and Small Plates
Whether you buy ware while traveling usually comes down to luggage. However much you want a piece, knowing you cannot carry it home stops your hand. On that count, mamezara and small plates are the easiest ware of all to take home.
A three-sun, 9cm mamezara sits in your palm, and stacked they barely add any thickness. They fit into the gaps in a suitcase, or between clothes. Four mamezara weigh less than one large plate carried home in your arms. And the work of four makers stays with you.
The price makes them easy to choose too. From around 1,300 yen, most under 2,500. That is a price band where you can buy one as a souvenir of the trip, so you spend less time deliberating in the shop. At a pottery market like the Bizen pottery festival or the Onta folk pottery festival, you can talk to the maker while you choose a piece of that place.
To carry them home, wrap each one in paper or cloth and slip another sheet between them where they stack. Hand luggage shakes less than the hold, so that is the safer place for them.
And if you would rather not add to your luggage, you can choose at nokaze and have it sent to your home. You travel light, and it arrives about when you do.
The greatest pleasure in choosing Japanese ware is mamezara and small plates. Learn how to choose them, then take on large plates as well, and make your table richer.
Related Articles
Choosing a Plate
- Large Japanese Plates: Choosing Size, Shape and Depth from Seven Sun
- Japanese Plates: Which Size and Shape for Which Dish
- Japanese Plate Sizes: Sun to cm Conversion Chart
- Japanese Tableware Complete Guide
Glaze and Surface
- Crazing (Kannyu): Cracks in Glaze That Aren't Damage
- Kohiki Pottery: The White Slip Technique, Explained
- Keshiki: How to Read the 'Landscape' on a Pot
Go and Look
- Japanese Small Plates | Handmade Mamezara & Kozara
- Japanese Plates | Handmade Ceramic Plates from Japan
- Japanese Bowls | Rice Bowls, Soup Bowls & Matcha Bowls
Three Plates, From Three Makers
Forty-five small plates and chopstick rests by makers across Japan. Most are under 2,500 yen. Shipping does not change, so choose two rather than one, and three rather than two.
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