Japanese Flat White
I listened to a lovely podcast last week where Grant Gibson interviewed Florian Gadsby for his excellent Material Matters series and really enjoyed hearing them talk together. The only negative thing I felt throughout the whole thing was a lurch of guilt when they touched on Florian’s dislike of the cultural appropriation of Asian forms by people who don’t properly know or belong to those cultures. The example raised in that podcast was the spate of “Moon Jars” being made by potters everywhere when those are a form very specific to Korean culture - Florian mentions a question from a friend about why this might be happening (I would guess this might have been the amazing Jaejun Lee, a Korean potter in the UK) and although he spoke very mildly about it with no scorn, I still felt a twang of guilt myself for my maker’s mark, my use of the term yunomi for handle-less cups, guinomi for smaller ones. I have been to Japan, but it was for 3 days and I was there as a gigging musician. The pottery I have come to admire is quite often from there and when I read of the attitude and approach they take to ceramics, craft,art, I’m swept away with it and I take it on board as part of my own as much as possible. When it comes to actual usage though, I rather veer off because the shapes they use for tea, I find ideal for coffee. I’m a flat white drinker primarily with some pour-over v60 action mixed in. My neighbours at the studio are Full Court Press roastery so I am never without incredibly roasted beans, advice, wonderful smells all day long. I’ve been into coffee for about 15 years - I mean, much longer as a drug, I’m just talking about the actual pursuit of a refined sense of flavour and aroma - so when I started making pottery around 4 years ago, I tried to make my ideal cup. One problem I’ve faced is with nomenclature - the name “yunomi” is so useful as a byword for “handle-less cup” but the understandable reality is that hardly anyone knows what a yunomi is so I end up having to explain constantly, which obviously renders the name completely useless and, if I’m honest, probably just a bit pretentious-seeming. But, what about the lovers of Japanese tea who DO know what a yunomi is and want to find them by using that word in a search? The yunomi itself doesn’t need to be made any differently to suit use with tea or coffee so there’s no concern around making a vessel equally appropriate for both disciplines - it’s just how I talk/write about them and just calling them “cups” offers no definition or description, it’s far too broad and “meh” and the great thing about the word “yunomi” is it implies both a size and a form. My maker’s mark has always been a katakana N, but this too has often made me feel self-conscious when asked about it, so last week I made a run of cups without the dot-and-swoosh to see how it felt/looked - I simply stamped NDC onto the base of each (they looked a little naked since I’m so used to the brush strokes but there was undeniably a clean honesty to them). So I don’t quite know what to call them - for now they are “Cup -Yunomi” in my webshop listings in the hope that people who want those items will find their way there, but any suggestions would be very welcome on how I might best make my parallel offering to the tea and coffee communities alike - let me know your preferences. It’s not something I feel sensitive about or protective over - my priority is making the most interesting and pretty and ergonomic vessels I can no matter what people drink from them, I just really want them to find their way into the hands of the people who want them!