Japanese hand-made teapot(Kyusu)

Japanese Teapot: Shigaraki Clay Teapot: HOJO TEA

【Akira Hojo】 Thank you for visiting HOJO website. If you have any enquiry, please feel free to get in touch with us at

e-mail address

 

▼ Akira Hojo

Click for Profile>>

 

▼ Hojo Newsletter

Click for Back Number >>

 

▼ HOJO FACEBOOK

Visit Our Facebook >>

私たちはブランドコンセプトをこうして実現しております HOJOのお茶が安全な理由 Japan Clay Tea Pot Japan Cast Iron Kettle

Japanese Teapot

Cast Iron Kettle

Japanese Green Tea

Chinese Green Tea

Indian Black Tea

Chinese Black Tea

Taiwanese Black Tea

Taiwanese Oolong Tea

Chinese Oolong Tea

Dark Tea

Yellow Tea

White Tea

Scented Tea

oversea shipment

HOME > Teapot > Shigaraki Clay Teapot

 

Shigaraki Clay: One of the 6 Oldest Potteries in Japan

Shigaraki is the name of a place in Shiga Prefecture in Japan. This place was called "Koga" once upon a time. Most Japanese knows this name, Koga, not because of the clay, but Ninja. Koga was the place where Koga Ninja was brought up. In any case, we need to clarify that Ninja has nothing to do with this clay though.

Shigaraki is one of the 6 oldest potteries in Japan. At present Shigaraki produces more than a few thousand kinds of clay and also supply various kinds of clay to many other places such as Tokoname, Bizen, Banko and Sado. In fact the most of clays being produced in Shigaraki is white clay which is suitable to get beautiful "Yohen" outlook when it is baked in wooden kiln such as "Noborigama" (Dragon Kiln). As the matter of fact, most of aritist who use Shigaraki clay to bake their product is hoping to get identical appearance. Unfortunately those clays are not suitable for teapot due to following 2 reasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shigaraki_Jar.JPG

1. The baking temperature is too high. For the most of Shigaraki Yaki, the artist uses very high temperature to bake clay. The artist wants the surface of clay melted in order to create natural glazing and to cause the various color with fire. It is nothing wrong to use this technique for making a flower base or something which is only for aesthetic purpose. However the high temperature baking is absolutely not suitable for teapot. The high baking temperature get the mineral of clay melted and drastically reduce its surface area. Once clay reduces its surface area, it gives very less effect like glass.

2. Majority of Shigaraki clay is white clay since there are huge demand of the clay that is suitable for Yohen or natural glazing.

We selected clay from the mountain of Shigaraki based on the performance of clay. We have tasted water from various kinds of Shigaraki clay and selected one particular type of clay. The Shigaraki rough clay that we selected is very rich in iron. The crude clay looks yellow-reddish in color. It is baked in reduction fire and appears in beige-orange color. Due to the highly intense porosity, you can even detect the aroma of tea coming out from the clay teapot when brewing tea. When placing teapot on table for a short while, after remove it you can immediately observe the steam remains on the table that penetrate through the clay. We carried out tasting using water in Japan, Malaysia and China and found out that it makes the intensity of Hou Yun extremely strong. Shigaraki clay teapot is suitable for most kind of tea including Japanese green tea, oolong and puerh.

Once upon a time, people would have been aware that the clay makes taste delicious. I believe that the fact that Shigaraki used to be the 6 famous kiln in Japan would have been thanks to the performance of clay. Unfortunately most of people in Japan nowadays only care about the appearance. Ironically normal Shigaraki clay in general performs nothing special but unique in outlook.

 

Teapot Evaluation Technique Using Water



Teapot Evaluation Technique Using Tea

Limited Teapot Thanks to the Collaboration with Masaki Tachi.

We have paid attention on this clay for a long time and hoping if anyone could come up with teapot. Finally, we managed to introduce Shigaraki clay teapot thanks to Mr. Masaki Tachi who is usually specialized in Banko purple clay teapot. Banko purple clay comes from Iga area. Ironically Iga also used to be the hometown of Ninja. In the history, Iga Ninja worked for government, while Koga Ninja worked for opposition. Both locations are quite close by.

 

Shigaraki Clay Teapot is very limited and we are not certain if we are able to continue the supply in future. The availability is subject to the willingness of Masaki Tachi and the availability of clay.

Grinding the bottom workshop

 

 

Master Caster Knocking

 

 

伝統工芸士 舘正規 Nationally Cetified Artist Tachi Masaki

TACHI MASAKI is the Certified National Grade Hand Craft Artist (伝統工芸士) He is also certified as The Living Treasure of Yokkaichi City of Mie Prefecture: 四日市市無形文化財. Ultimately he is in the top five purple clay teapot artist in Banko Yaki.

When he was at the age of 21 years old, he has already been awarded the Minister’s Prize in the exhibition. As it was, people started to call him “Genius”.

In Japan, his work is very well recognized by teapot collectors and tea lovers. His product is very limited as each art piece is Specially Hand Made by him.

Tachi Masaki emphasizes that his teapot is not only a beautiful art piece but it is also very functional. It is “Functional Beauty”. It is the design meant for brewing tea.

On top of the numerous prizes he was awarded in the past, he had an honor to present his work to The Prince and Princess of Japan (徳仁 & 雅子) when they visited Mie Prefecture. Now he is one of the auditors who select the new generation of Banko 伝統工芸士.

 

Grinding the bottom workshop

Masaki Tachi: 舘 正規

 

Safety as a Part of HOJO's Quality Safety as a Part of HOJO's Quality

 

Please feel free to send us e-mail for enquiry at:

E-mail

 

Payment

Solution Graphics

We accept various kinds of credit card through Paypal.

Only if customer prefer other option of payment, we suggest "Bank Transfer".

 

Shipping

Various choice of shipping method

EMS, SAL, Small Packet, Small Packet (SAL) Yamato Express and Surface

For shipping tea, we usually suggest small air parcel, the estimated shipping cost of tea in 100g (with wrapping material ) is

Small Parcel

USA JPY 600, EU JPY600 and Asia JPY470

Small Packet (SAL)

USA JPY380, EU JPY380 and Asia JPY320

The shipping fee to oversea by small air parcel happens to be even cheaper than domestic shipping fee in Japan.

 

Custom Fee

For your information, some countries, EU in particular imposes custom duty. We need buyer to bare the duty. We are sorry, but we cannot change the amount on the invoice, and we do not mark any packages as gifts. We will strictly follow the custom regulation.