In Japan, the yunomi is the everyday teacup: tall, handleless and made to keep green tea hot in your hands. Because they are so ordinary, they quietly became one of the best canvases in Japanese design. Restaurants printed them as gifts, travel companies handed them out as souvenirs, and potters painted them with poems. Here are five from our shelves, and the stories they carry.

The kappa who run a sushi bar

Japanese Sushi Bar Yunomi Teacup with Kappa Characters
Sushi Bar Yunomi with Kappa Characters

Our sushi bar yunomi shows green kappa, the water sprites of Japanese folklore, working behind the counter and clinking glasses with customers under a row of hand-written menu tags. The kappa are no accident. They are said to love cucumbers more than anything, which is why the cucumber roll is called kappamaki. In Edo-period picture books they went from frightening river creatures to comic characters, and they have been mascots ever since.

An Utamaro beauty, made for a restaurant

Japanese Restaurant Yunomi with Utamaro Beauty Print
Restaurant Yunomi with Utamaro Beauty Print

One side of this cream yunomi carries an Edo-period beauty signed "painted by Utamaro", the woodblock master famous for intimate close-up portraits of women. The other side reads "Kappō · Catering · Uoroku": it was a house cup for a restaurant where the chef cooked in front of you and also delivered meals to homes and events.

A river dyed crimson

Japanese Lidded Yunomi with Maple Leaves on Flowing Water (Tatsutagawa)
Lidded Yunomi with Maple Leaves on Flowing Water

Maple leaves drifting on swirling indigo water is a classic pattern called Tatsutagawa, after the Tatsuta River in Nara. It goes back to a poem by Ariwara no Narihira (825–880), who marvelled that even in the age of the gods no one had seen a river tie-dyed crimson by fallen leaves. This little lidded cup keeps tea hot and its fragrance in.

A souvenir from the roof of Japan

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route Souvenir Yunomi with Ropeway Scene
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route Souvenir Yunomi

This cobalt-blue souvenir yunomi celebrates the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route through the Northern Japanese Alps, which fully opened in 1971 after nearly 20 years of construction. The cabin in the little window is most likely the Tateyama Ropeway, Japan's longest one-span ropeway, built without a single support tower to protect the view.

Crab, shrimp and fish in red

Japanese Red Akae Sake Cup with Green Crab, Shrimp and Fish
Red Akae Sake Cup with Green Crab, Shrimp and Fish

Finally, a tiny flared akae sake cup. Akae means "red painting", the art of decorating porcelain with red-led overglaze enamels, said to have begun in Arita in the 1640s and later perfected in Kutani. Sea creatures are a favourite playful motif on cups made for sake.

Each of these is one of a kind, so when one finds a home, it's gone.