Tanabata Plate Set

During the Tanabata summertime festival, also known as the Star Festival, a stray cat wandered into a pottery studio in Mino, Japan. The potters named her “Tanabata” and with her friends she became the beloved pottery-cat and subject of this set of plates.

These minoware plates have been dyed using the traditional sometsuke technique. They’re mamezara-sized, literally a ‘bean plate’, a key part of everyday dining in Japan. Use for soy sauce, pickled vegetables, seaweed, wasabi, condiments, grated ginger or as a chopstick rest.

A set of five plates.