Sake ware

At the end of the day there is an hour that belongs to you. The dishes are done, things have gone quiet, and you pour a small measure.

These cups are made for that hour. Bizen hidasuki, where straw wrapped against the clay leaves red the potter cannot fully predict. Pinched ash glaze holding the shape of the fingers that made it. Small enough to sit in the palm, which turns choosing a cup into part of the pleasure. They work just as well with whisky.

An ochoko holds roughly 30 to 60ml, a guinomi 60 to 100ml, and a sakazuki is the flat ceremonial cup. The differences are here. The red running across the Bizen pieces is hidasuki, left where rice straw touched the clay in the kiln, and no two run the same way. Unglazed cups deepen in colour with use, so the one you reach for most will be the best-looking one a year from now.