Yunomi (Teacup)

A yunomi (湯呑み) is the everyday Japanese teacup: handleless, taller than it is wide, and usually holding 100 to 150ml, enough for one serving from a kyusu without needing a refill mid-conversation. It’s distinct from a chawan, the wider, shallower bowl used for whisking matcha in the tea ceremony; a yunomi is for sipping brewed loose-leaf tea, not whisking powdered tea.

Porcelain yunomi show a tea’s color clearly and clean up easily, which matters if you switch between different teas through the day. Unglazed or partially glazed clay yunomi, often sold alongside a Tokoname kyusu, absorb a little of the tea over years of use and develop a faint patina some drinkers specifically want, the same trade-off as choosing pottery over porcelain more generally.