Kuroterasu Black Oval Plate & Footed Plate

Ogatsu Stone Glaze · Obori Soma Ware · Oven & Dishwasher Safe

• 01 A matte yet lustrous black that makes food stand out
• 02 An oval plate with just the right depth to serve a whole meal on one plate
• 03 A footed plate thrown by hand on the wheel, one piece at a time

Deep black, the color that makes food look its best

Curry and pasta, of course — and it is just the right size for arranging a salad and a few side dishes together on one plate. This lustrous black tableware, likely to find its way onto your table again and again, is called Kuroterasu. The name joins kuro, "black," with terasu, "to shine a light on."

Oval plate

Its black comes from Ogatsu stone, quarried in Ogatsu, a town in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in northeastern Japan. Known as the raw material for the inkstones used in calligraphy, Ogatsu stone has been the area's signature product for more than 600 years, since the Muromachi period (1336–1573).

The powdered stone is applied over the whole piece as a glaze and fired slowly, using the techniques of Obori Soma ware — a traditional craft with a 350-year history in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, widely known for its blue crackle glaze and double-walled construction.

Kuroterasu was born from a collaboration between these two crafts, Ogatsu inkstones and Obori Soma ware, both emblematic of Tohoku, Japan's northeast. We spoke with Kunihiro Goto of Apis and Drive, a gallery and café in the Sasuke neighborhood of Kamakura, who created it.

"It was black, yet I saw light": a tableware brand born after the 2011 earthquake

In April 2011, one month after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, Goto traveled to Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, a city he already had ties to. What shocked him there was the overpowering smell hanging over the fishing port, devastated by the tsunami. Returning again and again, he learned that Ogatsu, further beyond Ishinomaki, was in a desperate situation.

Ogatsu is a harbor town facing the Pacific Ocean. There, where most of the town had been swept away, he met Takeshi Matsunaga, fourth-generation potter of the Matsunaga Kiln of Obori Soma ware, who had come as a volunteer.

Through working with Matsunaga, Goto became involved in building a brand of black Obori Soma ware made with powdered Ogatsu stone. Because "it was black, yet I saw light," he named the brand Kuroterasu.

Kuroterasu includes several kinds of tableware, but the oval plate and footed plate offered by By Emotion are Apis and Drive originals. Everything, packaging included, was designed by Goto's partner, Kumi Imai.

The oval plate was inspired by one used at a long-established Italian restaurant that once stood in Gaienmae, Tokyo. The angle of the rim and the size of the oval were refined through repeated prototypes. It is a genuinely easy plate to use — if you don't have an oval plate yet, this all-rounder is well worth adding.

Developed to handle any dish — curry, stew, pasta, soup, gratin, salad — it has just the right depth to serve a whole meal on one plate, which also means fewer dishes to wash. It stacks easily, too.

Stacks neatly, so it takes up little storage space

The footed plate, thrown on the wheel one piece at a time, is a striking piece that makes you think about what to place on it. To enjoy the texture of Kuroterasu, try setting just a small amount of food or a piece of fruit on it.

Even a small serving looks striking

It presents Japanese, Western and Chinese dishes beautifully, and looks modern while doing it — tableware unlike most. Both the oval plate and the footed plate are oven, microwave and dishwasher safe.