There is a legend about a Tanuki, a shape-shifting Racoon-dog, who travelled around Japan with a blackboard and a sake bottle, visiting hostelries that provided food and sake. The sake bottle, called a Tokuri, was made from a large gourd, and hung from his shoulder by a cord tied around the narrow waist of the gourd. At each establishment, he would have them fill his Tokuri with fresh sake decanted from their barrel, and he would eat and drink his fill, writing down the tab on his blackboard. He would then move on to the next establishment, where he would wipe the slate clean, and start afresh...
Legend has it that those who welcomed him graciously would be blessed with prosperity, and those who declined would meet misfortune.
...sounds rather like a protection racket.
You will often see pottery statues of Tanuki, tokuri and slate in hand, in dining and drinking venues throughout Japan, a talisman of good fortune.
My attention, however, fell upon the simple practicality of the natural gourd shape as a tokuri. The waist serves not only as a convenient place for a Tanuki to tie a cord, or a potter to bind tatami for rush flashing in the wood kiln, but is the perfect place for finger and thumb to firmly embrace the bottle without slipping! A design feature which becomes increasingly important and the night progresses!
Add to that a subtly textured surface, in this case a rope marked Jomon pattern, a durable Celadon glaze on the inside for ease of cleaning, and a softly curved lip for pouring, and you have a Tokuri fit for a Tanuki!
