Set of Five Soba Cups (Soba choko) with Interlinked Circles (Shippō)

The bucket-like, inverted-trapezoid shape emerged in seventeenth-century tableware used on individual trays at formal samurai meals, rather than as cups for serving soba (soba choko). Many of the dipping vessels later associated with soba in fact trace their origins to the small bowls (kobachi) or side dishes (mukōzuke) in which sashimi or dressed vegetables were presented at elite dining events. By the mid-eighteenth century, the walls of soba choko had become straighter, rising from a flat base known as a “go-stone box base” (gokezoko). This flat-based construction, enhancing both stability and ease of handling, became one of the defining features of the soba choko form.