Matsuya Lacquerware: Handmade Japanese Tableware and How to Choose It

Every piece in Matsuya Lacquerware's current tableware lineup, all nine of them, is a bowl. That makes this maker easy to compare against the rest of the catalog: instead of choosing between plates and cups and bowls, the only real question is which bowl size and which color fit the way you plan to use it. All nine come from Fukui, Japan, and prices across the lineup run from $68.00 to $137.50.

The smallest of the nesting bowls sits at 5cm at the rim, sized for a single portion or a small side dish. It is finished in black and made from resin rather than the wood used for one piece elsewhere in the lineup, which is the material choice behind most of what Matsuya Lacquerware makes.

Material: resin and wood

Eight of the nine current pieces are made from resin, with a single piece in wood. Resin lacquerware takes color more evenly than wood and holds up to daily handling without the same care wood lacquerware needs, which is likely why it makes up most of this maker's current lineup. The wood piece is the outlier worth noting if you specifically want a wood-bodied bowl rather than a resin one.

Sizing: from 5cm to 13cm

Rim heights across the nine bowls range from 5cm at the smallest up to 13cm at the largest, with pieces in between at 6.6cm, 7cm, 8.4cm, 11.5cm, and 12.1cm. That spread covers everything from a single-portion side dish to a bowl deep enough for a full serving of rice or soup.

The medium nesting bowl in the same black finish measures 12.1cm, considerably deeper than the small version at 5cm, with a second listed measurement of 6.6cm reflecting the piece's other dimension. Nesting bowls like these two are designed to sit inside each other for storage, so pairing a small and a medium from the same design keeps the set visually consistent while covering two different serving sizes.

Choosing by use

For rice or a small side, the 5cm to 7cm bowls stay light and easy to hold one-handed. For soup, noodles, or a fuller serving, the 11.5cm to 13cm bowls hold enough volume without needing a second container. The 8.4cm and 12.1cm sizes sit in between and work as an everyday bowl for whatever does not fit neatly into either extreme.

This spring-and-autumn bowl, at 7cm, sits toward the smaller end of that middle range. Next to the 5cm and 12.1cm bowls shown above, it fills the gap between a single-portion dish and a larger serving bowl, which makes it a reasonable second piece once you already own one bowl at each end of the size range.

Where to start

If you want one bowl that covers the most everyday use, look in the 7cm to 8.4cm range. If you are building a nested set, start with a small and a medium in the same black finish so the pieces stack and match. The full lineup is in the Matsuya Lacquerware collection, with the smaller sizes gathered under Small Bowl and the full range under Bowl Collection.