Hello, I'm Wada, the owner of the store.
It's gotten cold all of a sudden. I never imagined I would be transported from summer to winter in just a few days. My body can't keep up.
Today is a continuation of the last blog. If all goes well, oh's new original product " That Multi Bowl " will be available from the end of the month to early December. (It was a little later than planned, and sales began on January 25, 2024.) Cereal bowls, soup bowls, salad bowls, fruit bowls,
A bowl that can be used for multiple purposes, such as a bowl for side dishes, a bowl for dividing ramen, and a bowl for sukiyaki for hotpot. If you haven't read the first part , please start from there.
Maybe there are more ways to use it?
I've been using a white rice bowl for three years. I started trying to see if I could use it for more than just serving rice, and that's what led me to create " that multi-purpose bowl ." I tried using it for soup, salad, and other things, but in the end, I came to the conclusion that "after all, rice bowls are only used for serving rice."
Why is that? After observing various things, I realized something. That is, "When you go to the store and buy a bowl thinking, 'I'll buy a rice bowl,' you will end up using it only for rice at home." This is a preconceived notion. This is a strange phenomenon, and if you think it's for something, you will only see it for that purpose. 
My own assumptions alone won't do, so I decided to ask a chef friend for his opinion. He replied, "It's true that when you buy bowls, you buy the same shape for each family member. On the other hand, they might be the same color or different colors. Maybe they're color-coded depending on which family member will use them? But once you've decided on a bowl, it seems like you'll only use it to serve white rice."
Once you decide, the bowls will look just like bowls. This seems to be correct. And they are colored depending on who is using them... I see. I think I've seen children use white and parents use colored ones. Different colors for each family = colors as a mark.
From the world of teacups to the world of bowls
If that's the case, wouldn't it be better not to buy it as a rice bowl? That's what I started thinking. I feel it's a bit wasteful to use it only for white rice without thinking about it. Especially since the number of dishes that can be stored in a cupboard is limited. And since the only color is white, I don't feel like serving various dishes with it...
For example, the food you want to serve on light blue and black dishes is different. The fun of using dishes is imagining what you want to serve on them while you cook.
So what if we decided to use different colors based on what kind of food people would want to serve on them, rather than who would use them? I began to think that it would be better if the colors were used not as a symbol of family, but as a way to indicate roles and cues.
At that moment, the world of uniform rice bowls began to expand into a colorful world of bowls. After five years of use, we made the bowl a little lighter, reviewed the clay, and matched the white color to the plate, and we made small adjustments to the details, and finally reached the point where we could make it into a product. 
That is this product. "Ano" means "that cafe" and "ano" means "anonymous" because of its commercial-use form. "Ano Multi Bowl" was created from these two meanings.
Three colors that will make you want to serve food
The initial color lineup will be three colors.
white
The only thing I didn't like about the commercial tableware I had been using for a long time was that the white color was different from the other white tableware. The white of Japanese tableware is often much brighter than that of Western tableware, so it always stands out on the dining table. Since the clay and kilns are different, it is difficult to match them perfectly, but we tried to match the color as closely as possible to the white of oh's popular oval plate . This is a white for those who have a collection of white pottery. 
Oat Yellow
I thought blue or yellow would be good for making both Japanese and Western styles look elegant. Celadon blue is also very nice, but it gives off a Chinese-style atmosphere, so I'll save that for next time. And so, the ultimate neutral color, oat yellow, was born.
Smoke Grey
Dark colors give off a sense of elegance and seem to be popular among men. But pitch black is a bit too heavy for food and looks too Japanese. I thought the ideal color would be something that would look mature and cool on the dinner table. It would go well with nutty colored food, and also with vivid leafy greens. It would also be really stylish to put muscat grapes in it. That's what I imagined, and that's how I came up with the smoky gray color. It also goes great with the STIIK chopsticks sold at oh.
Trend or ease of use?
As for the texture, I actually considered going for the trendy matte finish until the very end. Nowadays, if you look around you, all the tableware is matte, and I heard that it actually sells if you sell it as matte. I was so excited that I gave it a try... But, metal marks appear easily, grease stains are noticeable, and it gets dirty with use. Also, some dishes make a sound like fingernails scratching a chalkboard... On the other hand, glossy dishes rarely have this problem. If you wash them in the dishwasher, they will look as good as new every time.
After weighing the options between "trend/sales" and "comfort when using" to the very end, I chose the glossy finish, muttering "grrrrr..."
That's how "That Multi Bowl" was completed. It has a slightly unusual name, but I'm really happy that we can finally deliver it to you after five years. We send these bowls off with the wish that they will "make everyone's dinner table happy!", so please choose which color you like.
