Japanese cuisine and pottery

[JasonTrue]

I have no exact duplicates of rice bowls in my personal collection... I think I have two that vary only in color. I have one that's pretty small, and one that's pretty big, and the rest are somewhere in between.

Matching sets are actually historically not the norm in Japan... For tori-zara (small plates for picking up shared items), yunomi (teacups), kozara (small plates for tsukemono or similar items) and kobachi (small bowls), it's common, but certainly not obligatory (and sometimes not possible), to get them in sets of 5.

Actually most people collect dishes over time; one of my friends in west Japan would buy one or two things every time she took a trip somewhere. Thirty or forty years later she amassed quite a collection, and kept a number of them in a house she rented out to another family next door.

The shape pretty much distinguishes rice bowls from other types of "o-wan". One of my potters distinguished a "rice bowl" and a "cafe au lait bowl" primarily by size.

Also, would it be common or uncommon to have different style rice bowls for each person at home rather than all being the same? Thanks in advance.

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I think it's pretty common, if not the norm, to have different styles (sizes) of rice bowls for each person. In our household (two adults and two kids aged 5 and 8), each person eats a different amount of rice so we each have a different size of rice bowl. The concept is the same as chopsticks, where each person has their own set.

OTOH, we have a set of uniform rice bowls that we reserve for guests.

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[sanrensho]

The other thing to remember is that rice bowls (as well as other china) eventually break over time, for one reason or another. Even if you start with a set, if you have more than a few household members, you'll eventually need to buy more non-matching rice bowls to replace the ones that break.

[Hiroyuki]

there are other chawan that are advertised for tea yet they look to be the same as chawan described specifically as meshi chawan for rice. Are these actually the same thing?

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I have no idea. Could you show us some examples?

In present-day Japan, when we speak of chawan or o-chawan (with the honorific affix o-), we almost always mean chawan for rice. Chawan for tea are called yunomi (湯飲み) chawan or jawan.

As for your second question, all my family have our own personal o-chawan, which vary in shape and size. Like sanrensho points out, even if we start with a set of chawan, we will end up using different ones sooner or later because chawan are frigile.

[aliénor]

as a working potter i would agree with what was said previously. try and find a potter to make some of these shapes and styles. if the local potter doesn't do that style of japanese pottery, he or she will surely know of others who are practiced in that style. and for those of you in japan check out mashiko for their overwhelming handsome handmade pottery fairs/exhibits/markets. i have been there and was blown away by the diverse styles from some very good potters and at very good prices. one doesn't have to go to department store in either usa or japn to find individually made, well crafted pieces in either stoneware or porcelain. support your local craftsmen and get unique handmade crafts!

alienor the potter

[Kent Wang]

Does anyone have photos of Japanese plates that they own, or just photos of ones they like?