Koso Kiln: Handmade Japanese Tableware and How to Choose It

Koso Kiln porcelain covers a narrow but useful range: bowls, cups, and small dishes, most of them made in Nagasaki, Japan. The easiest way to tell one piece from another is by color and by height rather than by shape alone.

A small purple dish to start

This square small dish, glazed in purple with a flower pattern, stands 3.2cm tall. It is one of the smaller pieces in this range, sized for a single condiment or a few pieces of food rather than a full course.

From dish to bowl: what changes

A red porcelain rice bowl, also carrying a flower pattern, stands 6.1cm tall and comes from Nagasaki, Japan, roughly twice the height of the purple dish above. That difference in height is the clearest sign of what a piece is meant to hold: a shallow dish for a small portion, a taller bowl for rice or a full serving.

Plates stay low, bowls stay tall

A blue porcelain plate from the same Nagasaki workshop stays low at 2.3cm, closer to the purple dish than the red bowl. Across these three pieces, the range runs from about 2.3cm to 6.1cm, which is a useful guide when you are choosing between a plate, a small dish, and a bowl from Koso Kiln.

See the full Koso Kiln collection, or start by shape with Bowl Collection, Cup, or Small Plate.