Soba choko are small deep bowls used for dipping buckwheat noodles in sauce since the Edo period. Originally they were used for dishes in a formal meal to hold some little delicacy called muko-zuke. Soba choko were made in many areas of Japan but nowhere so prevelently as in the Hizen province of what is now Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. They are usually referred to as Imari as a general term. Soba choko can be blue and white, or multi colored. Certain shapes any styles were made at certain times. Many have a janome kodai or “snake’s eye foot”. The foot is usually unglazed or sometimes just the eye is glazed. The “eyes” are larger during the Edo period. The Soba choko of the Meiji period generally have smaller eyes. Many do not have the snake’s eye foot, so we must look at other factors for dating.
From my collection
Meiji period soba choko with small janome kodai
Meiji period iro-e with sho-chiku-bai or pine, bamboo and plum motif
Although these meiji period cups are likely muko-zuke they are a similar size and have the same kind of center (mikomi) decoration.
I visited the Gallery at Vanderbilt.
From the Herman D. Doochin Collection at Vanderbilt University
