The Sake Encounter

Sake Ware

The vessels that bring sake to life — Hagi, Arita, yachimun and more — and where to find pieces like them.

The same sake tastes different out of a different cup. A wide porcelain guinomi opens the aroma and warms the liquid quickly; a small, thick-walled cup holds the temperature and concentrates what you smell. Sake bars in Japan choose the vessel as deliberately as they choose the bottle, and once you have tasted the difference side by side it is hard to go back to drinking out of whatever is nearest.

Every piece written about here I bought myself, drink from at home, and photographed myself. Nothing is a press sample. Each review covers what the piece is, which kiln made it and where, how it changes the sake, what it is like to actually hold and wash — and what it does badly, because every cup is a compromise somewhere.

Most of these come from kilns in Kyushu — Arita, Amakusa, and the potteries around them — because that is where I live and where I can go and look. Where a comparable piece can be bought outside Japan, I say so and link to it.