These small plates were made at the Yukutaya kiln in Okinawa.

In a jungle clearing close to the main pottery settlement in Yomitan, the Chibana family work on traditionally made Okinawa ceramics.

Their process involves Okinawan clay, sometimes softened by foot, thrown on the wheel and fired in a self-built nobori-gama (climbing kiln).

The plates have the large kodai (foot) common in the Okinawa ceramic style, and hand applied glaze patterns. They were fired in the kiln in the ‘kasane-yaki’ style, placed on top of each other. This leaves a small ring in the centre of most of the pieces, known as ‘ja no me’ (‘snake eye’).

They are 3-sun in the old unit of Japanese measurement. As 1 sun is around 3.03cm, they have a basic width of 9cm.

As each is hand made there are variations between them, but the plates are around 3.5cm and weigh around 150g.

(The ja no me section is unglazed, and can discolour if exposed to coloured food. If this is unwished for, placing the pieces in rice water for around 15 minutes before use can seal and protect the surface).