Sushi tea cup · Japanese, with fish names

A Japanese tea cup — a yunomi — printed all round with sushi varieties: each one pictured and named, in Japanese script with the roman transcription beside it.

In Japanese sushi restaurants the tea comes in tall, handleless cups — they hold the heat, and you wrap your whole hand around them. Cups printed with fish names are teaching material and decoration at once: while you wait, you read what is on the menu. Among those legible here are maguro (tuna), tako (octopus), hirame (flounder), uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe).

Stoneware, unglazed on the outside at the foot, fully glazed inside. The print is fired in, not stuck on — it survives the dishwasher and the years.

• Yunomi, Japanese tea cup
• Sushi varieties all round, each named
• Script in kanji and roman transcription
• Stoneware, glazed inside
• Handleless, tall form

Good. No crack, no chip, the print complete and sharp. Clean inside, no tea rings. Light standing marks on the foot ring.