A consists of the

flask Flask may refer to: Container * Hip flask, a small container used to carry liquid * Laboratory flask, laboratory glassware for holding larger volumes than simple test tubes ** Erlenmeyer flask, a common laboratory flask with a flat bottom, a c ...

and

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

s used to serve ''

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

''. ''Sake'' sets are most often in

Japanese pottery is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and Japanese art, art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Types have included earthenware, pottery, stoneware, porcelain, and Blue and white porcelain, blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exception ...

, but may be wood,

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be c ...

ed wood,

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

. The flask and cups may be sold individually or as a set. Sake cups are normally small, with variable shapes but based on traditional bowls used for tea. They are normally without handles, and most often without stems.

Server

The server of a ''sake'' set is a flask called a ''tokkuri'' (). A ''tokkuri'' is generally bulbous with a narrow neck, which tends to be called a "flask" in English, but may have a variety of other shapes, including that of a spouted vessel (''katakuchi''), similar to a Western

teapot A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water and serving the resulting infusion called tea; usually put in a teacup. It is one of the core components of teaware. Teapots usually have an ...

. Traditionally, heated ''sake'' is often warmed by placing the ''sake''-filled ''tokkuri'' in a pan of hot water, and thus the narrowed neck would prevent the heat from escaping. In more authentic places such as ''

oden is a type of nabemono (Japanese one-pot dishes) consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon or konjac, and processed fishcakes stewed in a light, soy-flavored dashi broth. Oden was originally what is now commonly call ...

'' bars and ''

ryōtei A is a type of traditional Japanese restaurant. Traditionally, only accept new customers by referral and feature entertainment by geisha, but in modern times this is not always the case. are typically places where high-level business or poli ...

'' in Japan, sake is sometimes warmed and served in metal containers known as ''chirori'' () or ''tanpo'' (). Recently, glass ''chirori'' are also used to chill sake.

Drinking cups

Formerly, sake was sold by volume in a wooden box measuring cup, known as a '' masu''

, Yahoo! Japan Dictionary/, accessdate=2010-12-22. which has a volume of one '' gō'' () and was also used to drink. In the past, the wooden box was said to complement the traditionally brewed sake, as it is brewed in a wooden

cask A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids ...

(), but in modern times, the masu is shunned by sake purists because the wood affects the flavor of the sake. Furthermore, tradition requires the masu be filled to the rim as a sign of prosperity. Masu are now commonly made of

lacquerware Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Before ...

or even of

ABS plastic Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C8H8)''x''·(C4H6)''y''·(C3H3N)''z'' ) is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately . ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point. A ...

. As the traditional sake-serving cup and a symbol of prosperity due to sharing the same pronunciation as the Japanese word for increase/proliferate (), the masu is still used in modern times for the purpose of ceremony or to show generosity. In some Japanese restaurants, the server may put a glass inside the ''masu'' (or put the ''masu'' inside a saucer) and pour until the sake overflows and spills into the secondary container to symbolize this wealth. Nowadays, the sake is typically served in ceramic cups. The cups used for drinking sake are generally small cylindrical vessels called ''o-choko'' or ''choko'' (, o- is an honorific prefix in Japanese used such as ''o-sake'' and ''o-makase''), but may also include flatter shapes such as wide-mouthed bowls. ''Sakazuki'' are ceremonial cups used most commonly at weddings and other special occasions such as tea ceremonies, but larger versions of ''sakazuki'' also exist. While not a traditional serving utensil, a

shot glass A shot glass is a glass originally designed to hold or measure spirits or liquor, which is either imbibed straight from the glass ("a shot") or poured into a cocktail ("a drink"). An alcoholic beverage served in a shot glass and typically consu ...

is also used. In the United States, it is used as a substitute for ochoko, while in Japan it is used in conjunction with ''masu''. Sake

stemware Stemware is drinkware where the bowl stands on a ''stem'' above a ''foot'' (base that allows to put the vessel down onto a table). It is usually made from glass, but may be made from ceramics or metals. The stemware is intended for cool bever ...

is also used, which is essentially a glass sake cup elevated above a wide base. Sake stemware, as well as glass tokkuri, are now commonly used to serve chilled sake. File:Three sake cups.jpg, Three traditional sake cup shapes File:Masu_zake_by_jeredb_in_San_Francisco.jpg, A decorated lacquer ''masu'' File:Overflowing sake glass in masu.jpg, Overflowing glass inside the ''masu'' File:A japanese Wedding-J. M. W. Silver.jpg, The bride is sipping sake from a ''sakazuki'' in ''san-san-kudo'' () ritual in a Japanese wedding. A woman on the right is holding a ''chōshi'' () sake server. From ''Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs, Illustrated by Native Drawings...'' by J. M. W. Silver, published in London in 1867. File:Kagami biraki - new years - club in tokyo - 2020 1 1.webm, ''Masu'' being used to drink sake at a sake barrel breaking ritual in Japan, 2020

References

External links

Sake Flask Shapes Guide

* Yoshio Tsuchiya, Masaru Yamamoto (food styling), Eiji Kori (photography),

Juliet Winters Carpenter Juliet Winters Carpenter (born 1948) is an American translator of modern Japanese literature. Born in the American Midwest, she studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies ...

(translation
"Saké servers"
''The Fine Art of Japanese Food Arrangement'',

Kodansha International is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning'', '' Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Young Magazine'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'', ...

(Tokyo), 2002, p. 70. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sake Set Containers Drinkware Japanese cuisine Sake