Kyusu teapots 急須

What is a kyusu?

A kyusu is the everyday Japanese teapot built for brewing green tea: loose leaf goes in, and a strainer built into the body catches it as the tea pours out. Most have the handle set at a right angle to the spout rather than opposite it, a side-handle style, which lets you tip and pour with one hand and keeps the handle away from the hot spout. A rear handle, closer to what a Western teapot has, and a top handle both exist too, but the side handle is the type most people picture when they hear the word.

What are ours made from?

What we stock spans a few different clay traditions rather than one look. Our Arita teapot is porcelain, from Arita in Saga Prefecture, a ware with a history running back over four centuries that was once exported abroad under the name Imari. Our Mino pieces are stoneware from the Mino district of eastern Gifu, one hand painted with fine linework and one shaped like a chrysanthemum flower. Shigaraki contributes two shapes in a wood-fired clay, the surface picking up scarlet fire marks and a natural ash glaze as it sits in the kiln, so no two pieces come out quite the same. Our Iga-ware pot is fired the same porous way, hard enough to sit over an open flame, with fine crackle lines and small glassy green spots where the ash melted onto the surface. At the decorative end, Asahido's crystal carving teapots pair porcelain with a hand-cut glass-like wall made near Hasami, in Nagasaki Prefecture, so light passes through and shows the colour of the tea itself.

Why the low, wide shape?

A kyusu is built low and wide rather than tall, and that shape is doing a job rather than following convention. Our Shigaraki listing puts it plainly: the wide, shallow body suits Japanese tea leaves, which want room to open out sideways rather than being packed into a narrow column the way a taller pot forces them to sit.

Does every kyusu have a strainer?

Most of what we carry does. A mesh strainer sits inside the pot where the spout meets the body, usually stainless steel, so the tea pours out clear and the leaves stay behind for a second or third steep. Our Arita, Mino and Fukui Craft pots all carry one built in this way. So does the Iga-ware pot; it is worth checking the specific listing before you buy, since not every design on our shelf carries the same setup.

Do you carry the classic unglazed kyusu from Tokoname or Banko?

Not currently. The best-known kyusu tradition uses shudei, an unglazed reddish clay from Tokoname, or the closely related banko-yaki teapots from the Yokkaichi area, and both are prized for a specific reason: the iron already in the raw clay reacts with the tannin in the tea itself, softening the astringency without any glaze standing in the way. What is on our shelf right now is glazed and decorated stoneware and porcelain from several different kilns instead. If the unglazed style interests you, our Banko ware guide covers that clay and the shidei teapots it is known for. Our Mino ware guide covers the district behind several of the teapots we do stock instead.

Quick answers

These are the questions people ask us most often about kyusu teapots, answered briefly.

What does kyusu mean? It is the Japanese word for the everyday teapot used to brew green tea, almost always with a side handle and a built-in strainer.

Why does a kyusu have the handle on the side instead of opposite the spout? A side handle lets you tip and pour with one hand and keeps your hand further from the hot spout; it is the most common kyusu handle style.

Can a kyusu go in the dishwasher? Usually not. Most of ours are hand wash only; one Mino-ware chrysanthemum design is the exception and is listed as dishwasher safe, so check the individual listing.

Do you sell the classic unglazed clay teapot from Tokoname? Not at the moment. What we stock is glazed stoneware and porcelain from kilns including Mino, Shigaraki and Arita; see our Banko ware guide for the unglazed shudei tradition.

Why is a kyusu shaped low and wide rather than tall? Because Japanese tea leaves need room to open out sideways; a wide, shallow body gives them that room better than a tall, narrow one does.