On the two words, several pronunciations, and many spellings for "sake cup"


When I was in Okinawa drinking sake I asked my host what the Japanese word for
the sake cup was and was told:

> お猪口{ちょこ}

Then today I went to the [Nezu Museum](http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/) in Tokyo
which currently has a collection of sake utensils on display. Every single cup
there bore the label:

> さかづき in the rubi and either 盃 or 酒盃 for the kanji.

So I was originally going to ask what the difference is between おちょこ and さかづき
but on looking up the latter for the right kanji to use in this question I was
bombarded with these variants:

> 杯(P); 盃; 坏; 巵; 卮; 盞; 觚; 觴; 酒盃(iK) 【さかずき(P); さかづき; うき(盞)】

So it seems that the exhibit was using neither the preferred/popular kanji nor
the preferred/popular pronunciation!

What am I to make of all this? Which word should I use for sake cup? Why would
the museum go with an uncommon variant? Are there nuances?




I think さかずき normally refers to something that looks like this:
![さかずき](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jlNaT.jpg)  
and can also be used as a general term for sake cup, including おちょこ:![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xjypt.jpg)  
I think さかづき is probably an archaic way of spelling it in hiragana(or
katakana?). Nowadays we normally spell it as さかずき. As for 杯 and 盃... both look
okay to me, though I think I learned it as 杯 at school... some people say 盃 is
a 俗字(informal variant?) for 杯 but I'm not sure.




I think さかずき normally refers to something that looks like this:
![さかずき](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jlNaT.jpg)  
and can also be used as a general term for sake cup, including おちょこ:![enter
image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xjypt.jpg)  
I think さかづき is probably an archaic way of spelling it in hiragana(or
katakana?). Nowadays we normally spell it as さかずき. As for 杯 and 盃... both look
okay to me, though I think I learned it as 杯 at school... some people say 盃 is
a 俗字(informal variant?) for 杯 but I'm not sure.

