瀬戸大将

せとたいしょう

Translation: General Seto, the crockery general

Appearance: Seto taishō is a tiny little soldier pieced together out of chipped teacups, cracked dishes, and other miscellaneous utensils that have fallen out of household use. Its face is a sake bottle and its armor is made of porcelain-ware. Seto taishō runs about the kitchen on tiny spoons, wielding knives or chopsticks as swords or spears.

Behavior: Seto taishō is highly aggressive. It loves to chase the cooking staff around the kitchen, causing chaos with every attack. The tiny crockery general occasionally crashes into walls or cabinets, shattering to hundreds of pieces. But it then slowly puts itself back together, and resumes its miniature kitchen war.

Origin: The word seto refers to the Seto Inland Sea, an area famous for earthenware. Just as we say “china” in English to refer to a specific kind of crockery, the Japanese use “seto mono” as a colloquialism for this tableware.