Japanese Unglazed Stoneware Hōhin Teapot – The Collaborations, Dragon Finial in Charcoal

No handle. The form was not simplified; it was answered.

A hōhin (宝瓶) is the vessel made for gyokuro and high-grade sencha — leaf brewed at around sixty degrees, cool enough that the pot is lifted by its own body. This one comes from Hiroto Ono, his seal impressed into the clay. Charcoal grey, matte, finely grained, thrown on the wheel and compressed into a low globe with the throwing rings left standing around the waist. Nothing is glazed, inside or out. Iron-bearing clay of this kind is held in the Japanese tea tradition to soften the astringency of green tea, and an unglazed interior takes on the character of what is brewed in it. The pot will not remain as it arrives.

The lid seats flush into a recessed well. Its finial is a dragon's head modelled by hand, the scales cut one at a time, the tail worked in low relief across the lid face, a single air hole set behind the modelling. The pour runs over a wide lateral lip, the strainer pierced into the wall behind it.

CONSTRUCTION
Maker — Hiroto Ono, impressed seal
Material — unglazed stoneware, iron-bearing clay
Width — 7.5 cm including the lip
Height — 8.5 cm
Capacity — approximately 200 ml
Strainer — pierced, integral to the wall
Care — rinse in hot water. No detergent, no dishwasher. Air dry with the lid off

Handmade in Japan.

Selected and presented by Renaras.

One pot. Sourced once. Not repeated.