Drinkware
Drinkware
Japanese drinkware spans one of the widest aesthetic ranges of any category in the country's ceramic tradition, from the roughest, most informal yunomi tea cups used for daily green tea to the most refined, ceremony-grade chawan matcha bowls. Between these extremes lie ceramic sake cups, glass tumblers, lacquered cups, porcelain coffee mugs, bamboo cups and the iconic one-sided handle-free Japanese mug that has influenced drinkware design worldwide. Each vessel is designed around the specific drink it contains and the experience of drinking it — a concept that might seem obvious but is applied with a consistency and care in Japanese design that sets the results apart.
Yunomi tea cups — the standard cylindrical cup for everyday green tea — are made without handles, which means the warmth of the tea is felt in the hands as it is drunk. This is intentional: the tactile sensation of warming hands on a cup of tea is considered part of the pleasure of drinking it. The right size for a yunomi is enough to hold a comfortable serving of tea at a temperature that stays drinkable throughout rather than cooling too quickly in a large cup. The weight and thickness of the ceramic wall affects how the heat distributes and how long the cup remains warm after filling.
Sake cups range from the tiny ochoko (around 30 ml) for sipping warm sake slowly, to the slightly larger guinomi for room-temperature or chilled sake, to the flat, wide sakazuki for ceremonial use. Each has its own proportions and conventions, and choosing the right one changes the experience of drinking sake significantly — a small ochoko focuses the aroma and concentrates the flavour in a way that a larger glass dissipates.
The coffee cups, glass tumblers and other modern drinkware here bring the same material quality to less traditional contexts.
Discover more in our subcategories:
Pair with our teaware collection or explore coffee and teaware for the perfect hot drink setup.
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