Sake Cups (Guinomi & Ochoko)

The same sake behaves differently depending on what you pour it into. A wide mouth lets the aroma open out; a narrowed one gathers it on the way up. Guinomi and ochoko exist to make that small difference worth paying attention to.

Some are fired bare, with no glaze, so the clay meets the flame directly; some were wrapped in straw and kept the red lines it left; some shifted colour inside the kiln; some were caught by falling ash that melted into the surface; some have faces cut into the side to give the light an edge to catch. A thick cup with a low centre of gravity settles into the hand, while a thin one meets the lip almost without weight.

An ochoko holds a mouthful, a guinomi a little more, and a sakazuki is flat and wide. The names are sorted out in ochoko, guinomi and sakazuki, and the small cups that suit a drink late in the evening in a nightcap in a guinomi.