Ru Ware Tea Cup Hand-Painted Cat & Persimmon Straw Hat Cup | MoriMa Tea
Encounter a heart-warming tea container, taking a sip or two of light and elegant tea in the middle of a busy schedule; between touch and vision, clearly comprehend heaven, earth and people of nature and ingenuity.
Frequently Bought Together
Description
- Material: High-fired ceramic with authentic Celadon Ru Ware crackle glaze
- Style: Dou Li Bei (Straw Hat / Conical cup)/Zen Bowl with slightly flared rim
- Glaze: Rice-yellow (米黄), translucent, with natural crazing.
- Design: Hand-painted underglaze cat and persimmon motif
- Straw Hat Cup Dimensions: Mouth diameter 8.7 cm × Height 3.7 cm × Foot diameter 2.8 cm
- Straw Hat Cup Capacity: 40 ml (ideal for Gongfu tasting)
- Chan Ding Bei Dimensions: Mouth diameter 5.7 cm × Height 4.2 cm × Width 7.0 cm × Foot diameter 3.5 cm.
- Chan Ding Bei Capacity: 75 ml.
- Firing: Reduction-fired above 1280°C; fully vitrified, non-porous, lead-free.
- Some teacups simply hold liquid. This one holds a promise: that tomorrow’s cup of tea will taste just a little softer, look just a little richer, and feel just a little more yours than it did today. Meet the Ru Ware Hand-painted Cat Hat Teacup — a piece of Song Dynasty soul wrapped in a warm, playful embrace, built for slow mornings and even slower Gongfu sessions.
- It arrives already bearing a web of hair-thin crackles across its rice-yellow Celadon Ru Ware glaze. Don’t flinch. That web is the heartbeat of Ru Yao ceramics. With every steep, tea slips into those microscopic fissures, oxidizing into delicate “cicada wing” veins of gold and russet that no kiln can fake. The cup you use next month won’t look like the one you unbox today. That’s not a flaw — it’s a love story between tea and clay, and you’re the author.
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A Shape That Breathes, A Motif That Smiles
We took two classic forms and gave them a soft heart.
The Ru Ware Dou Li Bei (Straw Hat Cup) keeps its iconic wide-flared mouth and tiny foot ring — an 8.7cm opening that funnels the aroma of a good Tieguanyin straight to your senses, then tapers to a quick, clean finish. But where historical versions can feel stark, ours borrows the gentle plumpness of a ripe persimmon. The walls curve just enough to feel friendly in your palm. This is the 40ml Ru Ware Straw Hat Cup that seasoned tea drinkers reach for when they want to taste, not gulp.
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Its companion, a 75ml Zen Meditation Bowl (Chan Ding Bei), offers a wider, more grounded presence — perfect for those moments when a single cup is enough to cradle a whole afternoon.
And then there’s the artwork. A small, hand-painted cat nestles among sun-warmed persimmons on the side of the cup. The cat, curled and content, watches you. The persimmon, plump and golden, whispers a quiet blessing: may everything go as you wish. Together they turn this Cat Persimmon Hat Tea Cup into a daily talisman, a Ru Ware Blessing Ceramic Tea Cup that offers comfort as reliably as it does tea.
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The Quiet Alchemy of Living Glaze
What makes genuine Ru Ware so sought-after isn’t perfection — it’s the exact opposite. The glaze is deliberately crazed. As the cup cools from the kiln, the glassy surface shrinks just a fraction more than the ceramic body, pulling itself into thousands of invisible fractures. They’re surface-deep, utterly food-safe, and smoother than satin to the touch.
- Now the real magic begins. Pour in a dark oolong, a pu-erh, even a black tea. Over days and weeks, the liquor works its way into the cracks. Gold lines emerge. Reddish-brown threads appear. They deepen. They spread. No two cups follow the same path. This is Ceramic Ru Ware Tea Cup alchemy — a slow, tangible record of every tea session you’ve ever shared with this cup. It becomes your Ru Ware Ceramic Host Tea Cup, your Ru Ware Host Tea Cup, the piece you instinctively reach for when a guest worth impressing walks through the door.
- Heirloom-Grade Ru Yao Ceramics, Made to Last
Fired at high temperature, the cup is fully vitrified, food-safe, and lead-free. The glaze won’t peel, the hand-painted design won’t fade, and the body won’t leak — even as the crackles deepen. It arrives in thoughtful, secure packaging because we believe a treasure should land in your hands exactly as it left the kiln.
Ru Ware Tea Cup Hand-Painted Cat & Persimmon Straw Hat Cup | MoriMa Tea
$57.27
Straw Hat Cup
Frequently Asked Questions
The cup is covered in tiny cracks right out of the box. It looks broken. Is this safe, and won’t it cut my lip?
Take a deep breath — those cracks are the whole point. The Ru Ware glaze is formulated to craze as it cools, creating a net of surface-level fissures that sit within the glass, not through the body. Run your finger over them: they feel completely smooth. They won’t cut, scratch, or catch on your lip. The cup is fully vitrified underneath, so it’s as sturdy as any high-quality ceramic. This isn’t damage; it’s the canvas for the golden veins that will appear with use.
I have seen reviews saying these cups start growing dark, dirty-looking lines in the cracks after a few uses. Isn’t that mold?
What you’re seeing is exactly what collectors chase. Tea liquor seeps into the micro-crazing, oxidizes, and turns a beautiful gold, amber, or russet. It’s not mold — mold can’t survive in those conditions, especially when you rinse the cup with boiling water after each use. To keep everything hygienic and encourage even “seasoning,” simply rinse with hot water, let it dry upside down, and periodically steep it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes. Avoid soap (it can linger in the crazing and taint your next brew). The result is a clean, living patina that tells your tea story.
Why is this cup so small? 40ml is barely a sip. It feels like a toy.
You’re absolutely right — it’s tiny by Western mug standards, and it’s meant to be. In Gongfu tea, a 40ml cup lets you taste in layers. You pour, you smell the aroma captured by the wide rim, you take one or two deliberate sips, and you repeat. This rhythm reveals notes that get lost in a larger volume. The Zen Bowl at 75ml is there if you want a more generous pour. We list exact dimensions with a ruler in our images because we want you to know the scale before you buy. Measure against a cup you already own — you might be surprised how quickly the size feels just right.
The bottom of my cup wobbles, and there are tiny black specks and pinholes in the glaze. Did I receive a defective one?
Handmade Ru Yao ceramics carry the marks of their birth. Small iron spots (dark flecks) come from the iron-rich clay body showing through; micro-pinholes happen when gases escape during firing. A slight unevenness on the foot ring is also a sign of hand-finishing. These are considered authentic character marks, not defects — in fact, many collectors prize a few iron spots as proof of traditional materials. We hand-inspect every cup before it ships and only send out pieces where these marks are subtle and don’t interfere with the beauty or function. If your cup wobbles dramatically or has sharp protrusions, of course, reach out — that’s not what we do.
The color in real life looks yellower/whiter than the listing photos. I don’t like it.
The rice-yellow Celadon Ru Ware glaze is notoriously sensitive to kiln atmosphere. One day’s firing leans a little creamier; another batch comes out with a faint green undertone. It’s the fingerprint of reduction firing. We photograph under calibrated daylight, but screens shift colors, and the glaze can look different in warm indoor light versus cool morning sun. If the shade you receive genuinely doesn’t spark joy, you’re covered by a straightforward return — no argument, no guilt.
I’ve been using my cup for weeks and there are still no golden lines. Am I doing something wrong?
Patience, and the right tea. Darker teas — ripe pu-erh, heavily roasted oolongs, black teas — color the crazing much faster than delicate greens or whites. Also, how you rinse matters: pour the hot tea liquor into the cup, drink, and then give the empty cup a quick hot-water rinse without scrubbing. The tiny bit of residual tea left in the cracks will oxidize. If you’re exclusively drinking light teas, the lines will come, but they’ll be paler and slower. Some collectors speed things along by pouring a little strong black tea into the cup and letting it sit for half an hour — entirely optional, but it works.
The first time I poured boiling water in, the cup cracked right down the middle. What happened?
That’s thermal shock, and it can happen to any ceramic that’s been very cold and then hit with extreme heat suddenly. If your cup has been sitting in a chilly room or came straight from a cold delivery box, warm it gradually: rinse with warm tap water first, then warmer, then introduce the boiling water. Our cups are fired above 1280°C and can handle boiling temperatures easily when treated gently. A sudden leap from 10°C to 100°C is rough on any object. If a cup ever fails under normal careful use, it’s covered — just tell us.