Starbucks Kyoto mug: Discovery Series
A Kyoto mug whose wraparound drawing shows a Hozugawa-style river boat, a Japanese giant salamander, a row of waterfront houses that may be Ine's boathouses, a machiya-style townhouse, bamboo, a macaque, a woman in kimono and a plate of triangular sweets.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Kyoto, Japan
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- July 2026 (Japan)Starbucks Japan's Discovery Series went on sale in Japan on 22 July 2026, per Impress Gourmet Watch's launch report and Rurubu&more., which lists Kyoto among the 19 areas with their own mug
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The merchant who taught Kyoto's farmers to run the Hozu
For more than eight hundred years, the Hozu River west of Kyoto carried logs, not boats. Raftsmen called ikadashi floated lumber down it as early as 784 [12]. In 1606 a merchant paid to have the riverbed dredged [12][4]. Suminokura Ryōi had grown rich trading abroad, including with what is now Vietnam, and he financed the five-month project himself [12]. Now boats could carry timber, goods and rice from Tamba, today's Kameoka, down to the city [12]. The raftsmen refused to give up their rafts. So Ryōi brought boatbuilders and boatmen to Arashiyama to teach the local farmers instead [12]. According to a Kyoto city guide, the method they worked out still uses three positions: a rower near the front, a man at the bow pushing off rocks with a long bamboo pole, and a steersman at the rudder [12]. The rice is long gone. Three boatmen still take passengers the 16 kilometres from Kameoka to Arashiyama [4]. On the side of the mug, the man with the tall pole and the rower in the boat (9) are doing two of those three jobs.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1
- 2Two-storey wooden townhouse that looks like a Kyoto machiya
A narrow two-storey wooden house in yellow and teal with a tiled roof, vertical slats on the upper floor and lattice screens across the ground floor. Wooden lattices on the street front are a feature of the traditional Kyoto townhouse (machiya), and the drawing resembles one, but it does not match a single named building. The mug doesn't name it.[6]
- 3Bamboo grove with a path that may be Arashiyama
Tall teal bamboo stalks with leafy tops beside a fenced path on which a small figure walks. Arashiyama, on the west side of Kyoto, is known for paths through bamboo groves, and the drawing may show it, but bamboo grows in many places. The mug doesn't name it.[7]
- 4Round dark animal, probably a bird, in front of an orange disc
A round dark animal, probably a bird, with a pointed tuft at the top left and pale dots on its body, in front of an orange disc, with teal leaves beside it, above the bamboo. The species is not clear from the drawing.
- 5Flower arrangement in a shallow bowl, like ikebana
A thin upright branch of small yellow five-petalled flowers rises from a shallow yellow bowl, with pointed green and white leaves at its base and pale blue clouds behind, left of the townhouse. In moribana, a style of ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement), flowers are arranged in a shallow vessel, and the drawing looks like such an arrangement, but the plant and the style are not identified. The mug doesn't name it.[11]
- 6Teal shape with gold round patterns at the left edge
A teal shape decorated with gold round patterns, with a grey rectangular object below it, at the left edge of the Front photo, where the photo cuts it off. What it is is not clear.
- 7Round dish of yellow noodles
A round blue-and-yellow patterned dish with a heap of yellow strands, probably noodles, with chopsticks laid across a bowl above it. The dish is not identified.
- 8Pale blue river with a long yellow-and-teal vessel
A pale blue river runs across the bottom of the front between yellow bushes, with a long yellow-and-teal shape with small windows on its left bank. The river and the vessel are not identified.
- 9River boat with poleman and oarsman, like the Hozugawa river boat ride Side view
A long flat wooden boat on blue water carries seated passengers, with a man holding a tall pole at one end and a man rowing with an oar at the other, below a hill of orange and teal autumn trees. The Hozugawa river boats from Kameoka to Arashiyama are flat-bottomed and are worked by boatmen with oars and bamboo poles through a gorge that turns red in autumn, which matches the drawing. The mug doesn't name it.[3][4]
- 10Plate of what may be nama yatsuhashi (triangular folded sweets) Side view
A dark oval plate holding flat triangles in pale blue, yellow and orange, each folded over a dotted filling. Nama yatsuhashi, a Kyoto sweet, is folded diagonally into a triangle around red bean paste; the triangles look like it, though the colours are the mug's palette. The mug doesn't name it.[5]
- 11Row of waterfront houses that may be the Ine funaya Side view
A row of two-storey wooden houses with gabled roofs standing right at the water's edge, with doors, lit windows and a striped awning on the ground floors and orange hills behind. Ine's funaya are two-storey wooden boathouses whose lower floor stores fishing boats almost level with the water; the drawing shows the row of gables at the water but no boat bays and no boats, so it may show Ine but does not clearly match it. The mug doesn't name it.[1]
- 12Japanese giant salamander Side view
A long, flat-headed salamander with four short legs and a thick tail, green with black blotches and yellow dots. The broad flat head, short splayed legs and mottled skin match the Japanese giant salamander, a protected species found in rivers of Kyoto Prefecture (in the Kamo River most giant salamanders caught in a 2011-2013 study were hybrids with the introduced Chinese species); the long curling tail and the colours are the drawing's style. The mug doesn't name it.[2]
- 13Small round dishes Side view
Five or six small round and square dishes in yellow, teal and grey, each with food inside, beside the handle. The dishes are not identified.
- 14Monkey that looks like a Japanese macaque Side view
A sitting monkey with a pale face and long teal fur patterned with dots. It looks like a Japanese macaque, the monkey of the Iwatayama Monkey Park in Arashiyama, but the mug doesn't name it.[8]
- 15Woman in a blue kimono Side view
A standing woman with her hair in a bun, wearing a long kimono, light blue above and dark blue below with white flower patterns, and wooden sandals, holding a small container. The figure is not identified.
- 16STARBUCKS Back view
The word STARBUCKS in small black capitals, printed vertically beside the handle on the back.
The photos do not show the bottom of the mug or any base markings, and only the Front and Back photos show the teal interior. In the Side photo the handle may hide the edge of the small dishes; in the Back photo the area beside the handle is blank apart from STARBUCKS. Part of the drawing between the woman in kimono (Side photo) and the left edge of the Front photo may not appear in any photo.
Collector notes
- The only place name printed on the mug is KYOTO, but the drawing may reach beyond the city: the row of waterfront houses may be the boathouses of Ine, a fishing village on the Sea of Japan coast of northern Kyoto Prefecture, though no boats are drawn.
- To check you have this Kyoto design rather than another Starbucks Kyoto mug, look for KYOTO in yellow capitals on a dark green shape, a teal interior, and the spotted salamander and the row of waterfront houses on the side.
- None of the drawings carries a printed label, so the names given here for the boat, the waterfront houses, the sweets, the flower arrangement and the salamander come from matching the drawing to sources, not from text on the mug.
- Starbucks Japan's launch reports say every area design in the Discovery Series hides a picture of a Starbucks paper cup somewhere (Impress Gourmet Watch, Rurubu&more.). We have not found the cup on the Kyoto mug in these photos.
Before you buy
The photos do not show the base, so any markings underneath are unknown; the inside is teal. To tell this Discovery Series design from other Starbucks Kyoto mugs, look for KYOTO in yellow capitals on a dark green shape on the front and, on the side, the spotted salamander beside the row of waterfront houses.
Other Kyoto mugs
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Ine Boathouses (Funaya) (Kyoto by the Sea official travel guide)
- Japanese giant salamander (Wikipedia)
- Hozugawa River Cruise (japan-guide.com)
- Hozu River Boat Cruises (Japan National Tourism Organization)
- Yatsuhashi (Wikipedia)
- Machiya (Wikipedia)
- Arashiyama (japan-guide.com)
- Iwatayama Monkey Park (Wikipedia)
- Starbucks Japan Discovery Series launch report (Impress Gourmet Watch, in Japanese, 17 July 2026)
- Starbucks Japan Discovery Series goods and sales areas (Rurubu&more., in Japanese)
- Ikebana (Wikipedia)
- Hozu River (Kyoto City, Nishikyo Ward Office, English guide, PDF)
