Copper Forging by Hand

Recently I made a jug to drink wine and Japanese sake at home.

Forging this from a sheet of metal by hand, I really felt in my wrists what I what I have seen from years of working in the metals industry: without the help of machines, processing metals is physically really hard work!

Japanese Sake is traditionally served from a “Tokkuri”, which looks a bit like a small vase with a narrow mouth. There are also wide mouthed jug-like tokkuri, like this one I made. In Japanese culture it is polite to pour Japanese sake for the other people drinking with you. This is one way Japanese people show respect for one another. Another way is to lower their cup when chinking glasses with someone else. In my design, the mouth on the side of the person pouring is lowered, to symbolize this show of respect for the person they are pouring for. The tokkuri is made of copper, which conducts heat well, keeping cold sake cool, and giving a nice cool sensation to the touch, which is felt by the person pouring. The color and shine in my tokkuri design is different from every side.