Japanese tea cups have no handle, so the cup tells you when the tea is ready to drink. If you cannot hold it, wait.

These are Mino ware, thrown and glazed in Toki, Gifu prefecture, a craft with more than thirteen hundred years behind it and a long habit of inventive glazes. The kairagi crackle, the drip glazes and the rustic tsuchimono finish all behave differently in the kiln, so no two cups come out identical.

The yunomi hold 310ml, which is an everyday size for sencha or hojicha. The smaller pairs come as sets of two, for tea poured in rounds rather than one long cup.