Exploring Japanese Tableware Culture Piece by Piece

Let’s look at some seasonal motifs. For spring, sparrows and horsetails are often used. Another spring-like scene is of logs being transported down the river when water levels are high from the melting snow.

For autumn, designs with rabbits and autumn leaves floating in water, as well as dewy grass designs representing the evening dew, are used. The round shape of the dish featuring the rabbit can itself be interpreted as a full moon, referencing the fact that a rabbit is said to live on the moon according to Japanese folklore.

A design made from the pairing of pine, bamboo, and plum, representing the joy of the long-awaited spring amidst the background of a long, harsh winter, is said to be the most common pattern used for celebratory dishes.

Eggplant patterns are often seen as a design element. Eggplant, or nasu in Japanese, is seen as a good omen, helping certain matters in life to “nasu” (“come to fruition”), and the eggplant has come to be a well-liked design, regardless of the season. There are many examples of Japanese ceramic dishes with these kinds of motifs that have become familiar through their implied meanings. Similar to eggplant (nasu), many cases of word play using the same pronunciation with different meanings are well-known in Japan, for example, sea bream (tai) paired with celebrations (medetai), and happiness (tako) with octopus (tako). 

Japanese people have attached meaning to scenery and casual objects around them, and have had fun with those meanings or used them to express hospitality. This can be seen even in the custom of osechi ryori, foods eaten during the New Year’s holidays. The Japanese aesthetic becomes very appealing when you understand the imagination, strong sensibilities, sense of humor, and playful nature present in Japanese culture.  This may be related to the idea of animism, an idea that took root in Japan in ancient times, and is part of a culture of sensing meaning in a variety of objects in one’s life and placing importance on those feelings. Animism refers to the idea that spirits reside in all manner of things in the natural world. It is thought that this idea is deeply rooted in the custom of placing one’s hands together before a meal to say, “Itadakimasu,” meaning, “I humbly receive (this meal)”. Spirits reside in the trees, flowers, animals, and even insects, and some gods are revered by humans as protectors, and this can be understand as part of the idea of gods existing within each and every thing. A god is by your side at all times. It is from this deeply-rooted concept in Japanese culture that special festive chopsticks, known as iwai-bashi, came to be. 

On a Japanese table, you’ll find porcelain plates, glass cups, lacquered soup bowls, rice bowls for each person, chopsticks in sizes perfect for each person, and more. A variety of tableware of varying materials, shapes, and sizes are spread out on a single table. In most cases, rice bowls and chopsticks are used by only a single person, with one set for the father, mother, and each child. According to Seiji Ebihara, an advisor at Sanshin Kako Co., this custom, unquestioned and normal for Japanese people, is actually a very “Japanese” custom.  “For a long time, Japan had a culture of ceramics, where dishes were originally made from mud. Because the shape of ceramic items are made by human hands, it is incredibly difficult to create two identical items. No matter what, two similar items will differ, even if only slightly. A kind of ‘diversity’ was nurtured within Japanese people, living among this culture of ceramics for so long, and it is thought that this is why it has become normal for a variety of things to exist together.”

This diversity fostered through Japanese history also led to the development of a culture of repairs. A variety of methods exist to repair ceramics: kintsugi, where broken dishes are held together with clamps, missing pieces are filled in with lacquer, and the outer layer is decorated with gold; tomotsugi, where parts of similar dishes are put together; yobitsugi, where parts of completely different dishes are put together; and many more.

 In the Edo Period, a culture developed where beauty was found in the patched up areas of dishes, seen as a sort of wound, accepted as “experiences”, and referred to as “scenes”. I think that this is just one example that greatly expresses some of the characteristics nurtured within each Japanese person: the feeling of taking care of objects, a generosity in accepting a variety of things, and an aesthetic sense that values imperfections as originality.