Shigehisa Miura: Handmade Japanese Tableware and How to Choose It

Shigehisa Miura's current lineup is nine pieces, all thrown in Gifu, Japan, in pottery (ceramic), priced between $68.00 and $72.00. The differences between pieces come down to shape and rim height: how a bowl or plate sits in your hand once you are actually holding it.

This flat rice bowl, glazed in the tokusa pattern, is a useful starting point: its rim sits at 6cm, low enough to keep the bowl reading almost like a plate. The tokusa glaze runs in vertical striations across the surface, a treatment that shows up on more than one piece in this lineup and is worth learning to recognize before you compare others.

What Shigehisa Miura makes

Of the nine current pieces, six are listed as Bowl, two as Plate, and one as Cup. Bowl is the shape to expect first if you are browsing without a specific piece in mind; Plate and Cup exist here mostly to round out a place setting once you already own a bowl or two.

Every piece comes from Gifu, Japan, and every piece is made from pottery (ceramic) rather than porcelain. Pottery fired this way carries more weight and a slightly rougher surface than porcelain would, which is part of why the tokusa glaze reads with visible texture instead of lying flat under a glassy finish.

Rim height and how it changes use

Rim heights across the current bowls range from 5.5cm up to 12.2cm, with other pieces at 2.7cm and 5.6cm. A rim near 5.5cm to 6cm keeps a bowl shallow enough for rice or a small side dish. The tallest bowl in the lineup, at 12.2cm, holds more volume and sits closer to a soup or noodle bowl in the hand.

This tokusa bowl shows that range within a single design: two versions of the same tokusa treatment, one at 12.2cm and one at 5.5cm, which makes it easy to compare a taller bowl against a shorter one without switching glaze or maker. If you already know you want the tokusa surface, this is the fastest way to decide how tall a bowl you actually need.

Choosing by shape

For everyday rice or small sides, the 5.5cm to 6cm bowls stay light in the hand and easy to hold while eating. For soup, noodles, or anything with more liquid, the 12.2cm bowl gives enough depth to keep contents from spilling over the rim when you pick it up. The Plate pieces, in the 2.7cm range, are the flattest items in the lineup and work best for anything you want laid out rather than contained.

This larger tokusa bowl sits at 6cm, the same low rim as the flat bowl above but in a bigger overall size, so it works as a larger version of the same shallow profile rather than a taller vessel.

Where to start

If you are choosing a first piece, a bowl in the 5.5cm to 6cm range covers the most everyday uses, while the 12.2cm bowl is the one to add once you need something with more capacity. The full lineup is in the Shigehisa Miura collection, with the bowls gathered separately under Bowl Collection and the shallower shapes under Small Bowl.