Category: Yamada Yutaro

Shudei by Yamada Yutaro: The Bona Fide Red Teapot

Ceramics Yamada Yutaro

Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro in our shop->

While many red or shudei teapots are created using clay mixed with manufactured red iron oxide these days, the teapots of Yamada Yutaro are made using clay rich in iron dug out over half a century ago from under the rice paddy fields near Tokoname in Central Japan.

Shudei Hohin (teapot with no handle) by Yamada Yutaro of Tokoname, Japan
Black and Shudei Kyusu teapot by Yamada Yutaro

“I found out that back in the day, the best red clay was found in the paddy fields of neighboring towns like Kaminoma and Kowa,” Yutaro said. ‘Back in the day’ refers to the time when the famous Chinese tea pot maker Jin Shiheng arrived in Tokoname from Yixing in China in 1858 to teach local potters.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, most households in Japan owned a ceramic Kyusu teapot and a great majority of them were red. I still fondly remember sipping tea brewed in a vermillion teapot sitting around a heated table watching sumo with my grandparents. Owning a Kyusu teapot must have been a tradition dating all the way back to Jin’s arrival in Meiji Japan. Sadly, this is no longer the case in Japan where many people today get their tea from vending machines.

Paddy rock inherited from a local pottery that was excavated half a century ago.
Photo courtesy of Yamada Yutaro
This rock will eventually be processed into shudei clay
Photo courtesy of Yamada Yutaro

To make his shudei clay, Yutaro processes dried rock inherited from a now defunct local pottery. Preparing the clay is a physically demanding and time-consuming process, but as with everything else in craft, being uncompromising is often the best way to making good work.

Processed Shudei clay
Photo courtesy of Yamada Yutaro

I’ll leave it to the tea aficionados and scientists to judge if a shudei tea pot actually makes the tea taste sweeter and mellower as is reputed. But the fact is that the shudei ware made by Yamada Yutaro is not just about the looks. His teapots are made using carefully selected material with due process and attention that has been practiced and refined over the centuries by numerous generations of potters. I hope that Yutaro’s beautiful and painstakingly prepared work will entice more people to enjoy tea brewed in a teapot instead of coming from a plastic bottle.

 

Tea is Always a Good Idea: New Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro

Ceramics Tokoname Yamada Yutaro

Tokoname Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro in Our Shop August 3rd->

I am far from alone in wrongly anticipating that the Covid pandemic by now would be under control and I would be planning a summer trip somewhere. But with all the indices here in the U.S. going in the wrong direction, we are stuck at home for the foreseeable future.

One good piece of news arrived recently in the form of a box from Japan that I had shipped months ago early in the pandemic but that got stuck in the Japanese postal system. In the box were Kyusu tea pots by Yamada Yutaro that I had hoped to release in my online shop before the arrival of this year’s new Japanese tea crop in June.

Tokoname flat Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro with mogake markings
The seaweed used for creating the mogake markings on the Kyusu is collected along the coast of Tokoname.

That June date has long past and I read in the news that the long rainy season that tormented Japan this year is also finally over. The humid hot summer has officially started and this is also the beginning of the toughest work environment for many craftspeople in Japan. I remember Yutaro san telling me that in the summer, he sleeps during the day and works at night because the heat in his studio reaches over 100 degrees every day. He is constantly battling with mosquitoes because he has many containers of standing water for making clays lying around in the studio.

Kyusu maker Yamada Yutaro’s studio in Tokoname, Japan
Tokoname Kyusu before firing. Yamada san makes his own clay.
Tokoname clay made by Yamada Yutaro
Tubs carrying clay and water around Yutaro’s studio -a mosquito’s paradise.

When I reported the good news of his pots’ delivery, Yutaro san said, “I’m glad they arrived safely. I hope that we can encourage people to have tea and enjoy using tea wares even more often since we’re all staying at home.” I chuckled because I’ve never heard of anyone as young as him (only 28 years old) talk about making tea at home.

In a stressful time, tea is always a good idea, and I’m happy to be able to share Yutaro san’s passion and thoughtful work during this time. I drink more tea now than ever, because tea time has become an important ritual for both my husband and I to take a break from work at home. So put on the kettle and join me and Yutaro san for tea.

Tokoname Kyusu and Yunomi by Yamada Yutaro

A Very Particular Focus: A Love Affair With Tokoname Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro

Tokoname Yamada Yutaro

Tokoname Kyusu by Yamada Yutaro in the Our Shop ->

On an unusually warm November day in Japan, I visited Yamada Yutaro, a young rising star of kyusu teapot makers in the old pottery town of Tokoname. When Yamada-san graduated from college, he did not appear destined to be a potter as he went to work for a construction company. But he always wanted to make kyusu, so he heeded the advice of a colleague who said that he should follow his ambition sooner rather than later.Yamada-san quit his job after just one year and returned to school to study ceramics.

Tokoname kyusu teapots by Yamada Yutaro

Yamada-san grew up in Tokoname, which is a ceramics town south of the sprawling city of Nagoya. Tokoname is one of the six oldest pottery towns in Japan and dates back to the 12th Century. The town flourished during a big construction boom in the Meiji era as it became a supplier of ceramic drainpipes.

A street in Tokoname lined with reused ceramic pipes and shochu bottles. Tokoname was once the largest producer and supplier of these ceramic items in Japan.

During the Showa era, Tokoname became widely known for its kyusu. When I was growing up, even in my humble house, we used kyusu from Tokoname to drink green tea because it was the brand to own!

Kyusu making in Tokoname is believed to have started during the Edo period when a local potter called Inaba Shozaemon started creating teapots by referencing drawings of old teapots he found in a book. The fame of Tokoname Kyusu grew further when a Chinese Yixing potter called Jin Shiheng was invited in 1858 to teach red clay (Shudei) kyusu-making techniques to local Tokoname potters by Koie Houju, a prominent Tokoname potter and businessman who made his fortune in the drainpipe business.

The studio of Yamada-san’s father stacked with ceramic planters. The Yamadas have been potters for three generations.

Many families in Tokoname have been potters for generations. In the case of Yamada-san, he follows his father and grandfather into this profession. But unlike most Tokoname pottery families, the Yamadas are very individualistic and each generation has pursued different interests.

Yamada-san’s grandfather made hibachi, while his father is focused on planters. Yamada-san himself is a kyusu maker. “I’m infatuated with kyusu, but my father says he has absolutely no interest in kyusu”, Yamada-san chuckles. But the son always keeps in mind what his father told him when he quit his office job to become a full-time potter, which was that it was not easy to make a living as a potter.

Kyusu maker Yamada Yutaro of Tokoname

Kyusu making is a very delicate and exacting process with each step requiring the utmost precision. The body, lid, tea strainer, handle, and spout are all created separately and subsequently put together meticulously. As kyusu making is so highly specialized, Yamada-san said that the general ceramics training taught in schools was not directly useful to him.

The strainers that will be attached to the inside of the spout. The holes are larger on the edge to allow for the last drop of tea to come out easily from the teapot.

So after his school training, Yamada-san honed his skills by getting hands-on experience from expert local teapot makers like Murakoshi Fugetsu, who learned from Yamada Jyozan III who was designated as an important intangible cultural property (also known as a living national treasure) of Tokoname Kyusu by the Japanese government in 1998. Yamada-san also visits Yamamoto Hiromi, who he refers to as the “god of Kyusu” and is a renowned Banko pottery kyusu artist.

Yamada-san holding his “family treasure” brass hole cutter used to make the strainer. The nail on his right thumb is used for making the knob on the lid.
Kyusu greenware before high firing. The spout is attached slightly turned counter-clockwise, because the clay will pull back and the spout will turn clockwise during the firing.

According to Yamada-san, a good kyusu is comfortable to hold, which means that it should be easily held by one hand without any part of the user’s hand touching the lower body of the kyusu as it can get quite hot. The kyusu should also have a spout that pours smoothly and does not dribble. The strainer should allow for the last drop of tea to come out of the pot easily. And finally, the wall of the kyusu should be very thin so that it is light and easily held with one hand.

A hiragata kyusu by Yamada Yutaro. A good kyusu is lightweight and comfortable to hold with one hand.

From clay preparation to firing, Yamada-san is tirelessly meticulous. It was so refreshing and infectious to see his fascination with the kyusu. “I think good work inherently embodies the passion and spirit of the maker, and I want to make such work,”, Yamada-san observes. Looking at his beautiful kyusu, I think he is already doing this extremely well.