--- title: 'Kyusu, houhin and shiboridashi' url: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/kyusu' markdown: 'https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/kyusu.md' lang: en date: '2026-10-25' description: 'Japanese kyusu, houhin and shiboridashi: handle types, strainers, capacity, the yuzamashi for gyokuro, and how to choose, hold and care for them.' --- # Kyusu, houhin and shiboridashi 急須 Editors · October 25, 2026 · 10 min read You pick a Japanese teapot to suit the tea: a side handle for everyday sencha, no handle at all for gyokuro brewed with cooled water. The strainer, the lid and the size do the rest. ![A kyusu teapot with a straight side handle](https://howtotea.me/images/c/o/v/e/r/cover-538b8509.webp) Illustration 急須 Kyusu, houhin and shiboridashi kyūsu Name: 急須, kyusu Default shape: yokode: side handle Handleless: houhin, shiboridashi Capacity: 30–60 ml (shiboridashi) to 400 ml and up Material: red and purple clay, porcelain Main centers: Tokoname, Banko Kyusu (急須) is simply the Japanese word for a teapot. Outside Japan it usually means a small pot with a handle on the side, the yokode-kyusu. Japanese loose-leaf [green tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/green) is brewed briefly at moderate temperatures and drunk from small cups, so the whole kit is built around that. Water stays in the pot only for a moment, the strainer catches fine leaf, and the spout cuts the stream off cleanly without a drip. Powdered tea calls for different ware, the [chawan](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/chawan). ## Shapes by handle Kyusu are grouped mainly by where the handle sits. | Form | Handle | Capacity | Used for | |---|---|---|---| | Yokode-kyusu (横手急須) | at the side, usually right of the spout | 180–270 ml, "standard" 250–330 ml | sencha and nearly any tea | | Ushirode (後手) | opposite the spout | 250–400 ml | Chinese and [black tea](https://howtotea.me/teas/black), comfortable for left-handers | | Uwade, dobin (上手, 土瓶) | arched handle on top, often bamboo | 540–720 ml | bancha, hojicha, genmaicha with boiling water | | Houhin (宝瓶) | none | 80–160 ml | gyokuro, kabusecha, high-grade sencha | | Shiboridashi (絞り出し) | none | usually 30–60 ml | gyokuro and hand-rolled sencha | On a yokode the handle meets the spout at an angle under 90°, and experienced brewers recommend 85–90°. It makes pouring easy, with the thumb resting on the lid and the pot tipping with a turn of the wrist. A yokode over 400 ml gets heavy in the hand, so larger pots usually have a top handle. In a flat hira-kyusu (平急須) sencha needles unfold sideways, while a round marugata (丸形) is more versatile. The side handle arrived with the tea circles of the eighteenth century. In 1831 Tanomura Chikuden wrote that Baisao, the tea seller Ko Yugai (1675–1763), was the first to brew leaf in such a vessel, and that the potter Kiyomizu Rokubei copied Baisao's Chinese pot at the request of Kimura Kenkado. In Edo these pots stayed rare for a long time. Yet by 1828, Chikuden notes, twelve or thirteen years had been enough for them and their braziers to reach even provincial shops. Why the handle is on the side is disputed. Some say the pot was set over a fire, others trace it to Chinese water vessels with side handles. ## The strainer matters more than the shape What sets one kyusu apart from another is mostly the strainer, chakoshi (茶こし) in Japanese. There are seven common types, each suited to a different leaf. ![Kyusu with the lid off, showing the strainer inside](https://howtotea.me/images/k/y/u/s/u/kyusu-sito-7a3f7c0c.webp)Illustration - **Doana** (胴穴): holes drilled straight through the body wall. It drains to the last drop, but fine leaf clogs the holes, especially deep-steamed fukamushi. - **Debeso**: a ceramic dome by the spout. Large leaf cannot cover the holes, and Tokoname potters drill up to 300 of them in one dome. - **Sasame** (ささめ) and ceramesh: a wide ceramic plate with very fine holes. It holds back fine leaf without any metal, but drains more slowly and leaves a little water in the pot. - **Obiami** (帯網): a band of stainless mesh running all the way around the wall. It does not clog and lets the leaf open through the whole pot, but tea film builds up on the mesh. The Mizumoto workshop registered it as a utility model in 1987. - **Hiraami, pokoami**: flat or domed mesh by the spout. They do not clog and pour well. - **Sokoami**: mesh across the whole bottom. With only a little water the leaf may not be covered. - **Kagoami**: a removable basket. Easy to wash, but the leaf is cramped and gives up less flavor. Specialist guides recommend a built-in strainer over a basket. For fukamushi and fine crumbs, go with obiami or fine metal mesh; for whole leaf, ceramic works. With obiami you can choose a larger pot, since even a small amount of water still covers the leaf. Opinions differ here too. Some sellers say sasame never clogs, even with fukamushi, others that it clogs easily and needs cleaning. Most likely it comes down to the hole size of the particular model. ## Houhin, shiboridashi and yuzamashi The **houhin** (宝瓶) is a handleless pot of 80–160 ml with a lid and usually a ceramic strainer at the spout. Its mouth is wide, so you can see the leaf. Nobody knows when it first appeared; the Iruma museum holds nineteenth-century houhin from Tokoname and Banko. One theory makes the Chinese [gaiwan](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/gaiwan) its ancestor, but there is no solid evidence for it. The **shiboridashi** (絞り出し) is smaller still, 30–60 ml and rarely up to 100–120 ml. It usually has no strainer. The tea pours out through the gap between lid and body, and large leaf has nothing to get stuck in. Shiboridashi are made in Hoshino (Yame, Fukuoka Prefecture), in Asahi (Uji) and in Tokoname. You hold the bottom with four fingers and rest your thumb on the tab of the lid. Expensive handmade pieces have no rim under the lid, and you control the gap by how far you tilt it. Both vessels suit tea brewed at 50–60 °C: the body stays cool enough to hold, and a handle is unnecessary. A shallow shiboridashi cools quickly, which helps keep the temperature low, and the small size wastes less of the costly leaf. Deep shiboridashi also stand in for a gaiwan with Chinese [oolongs](https://howtotea.me/teas/oolong) and Feng Huang Dancong. The **yuzamashi** (湯冷まし) is an open bowl for cooling boiled water. You pour water from the kettle into a cold bowl and wait; the usual rule of thumb is about 10 °C per transfer. Gyokuro takes a longer chain of kettle, cups, yuzamashi, kyusu. Leave the bowl itself unheated, since preheating would undo the count of transfers. A wide, shallow bowl cools water faster than a tall, narrow one, and by the second infusion it is already warm, which is why sellers suggest keeping two. Don't take "minus 10" literally. Ricardo Caycedo measured drops of 3.4, 6.5 and 8.5 °C over three transfers in Bogotá, and Nagori Ware calculates anywhere from 6 to 33 °C for a single transfer, depending on the mass of water and bowl.[1](#fn:1) A [thermometer](https://howtotea.me/teaware/utensils/measuring-tools) is more reliable. Zennoh reference values, one serving Top gyokuro: 3 g leaf, 20 ml water, 50 °C (122 °F), 2 min 30 s, a very small kyusu of about 90 ml. Top sencha: 2 g, 60 ml, 70 °C, 2 min, a pot of about 250 ml. Regular sencha: 2 g, 90 ml, 90 °C, 1 min. Bancha, hojicha, genmaicha: 3 g, 130 ml, 100 °C, 30 s, a dobin of about 800 ml. For more, see how to brew [Japanese green tea](https://howtotea.me/brewing/methods/sencha-gyokuro). ## Clay, porcelain and flavor Most Japanese kyusu are unglazed clay, either red shudei (朱泥) or purple shidei (紫泥). Both come from iron-rich clay fired at 1150–1180 °C, shudei in an oxidizing atmosphere and shidei in a reducing one. There are porcelain pots too (Imari, Kutani, Seto), as well as cast iron, stainless steel, aluminum and glass ones. For the main centers and their clays, see [Tokoname and Banko](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/tokoname-banko). Material does change the flavor, though there is no magic to it. In a 2007 experiment by the Mie Prefecture science center, tea from aluminum came out the most astringent, glass and glazed ware less so, and unglazed stoneware least of all. The mechanism is straightforward. Catechins settle into the pores and bind with iron at the surface, while amino acids, theanine included, are not absorbed. After three to five minutes the water in the aluminum pot had cooled about 20 °C more than in the stoneware one. Porcelain absorbs no odors, so you can brew different teas in one pot. A clay pot is best kept for a single type of tea, as with a [Yixing teapot](https://howtotea.me/teaware/brewing-vessels/yixing). Stainless steel divides opinion: Akira Hojo says it barely affects flavor, while the shop Tezumi warns of an off taste once the steel rusts. ## How to choose - **Capacity.** Go by your cups. One person needs 100–150 ml, two or three need 200–350 ml. The Japanese number is easy to convert, since size 1 equals 18 ml. In practice you fill a pot to about 80 percent of its nominal volume. - **Strainer.** Match it to the leaf, as described above. A built-in strainer beats a basket. - **Lid.** It should sit with no play, or tea will run down the side. This fit is called suriawase (すり合わせ), and Tokoname potters fire the lid together with the body to get it. Keep the air hole in the lid clear, or the tea pours badly. - **Pour.** A good kyusu cuts off the stream with no dribble. Test it with water before you buy, because no photo or description will show you its mizukire (水切れ). - **Handle.** Pick up the pot full of water. With a houhin, check where your fingers touch the body. - **Plastic cap on the spout** is there for shipping. Take it off, since dirt collects underneath. - **Cast or thrown.** Tokoname has used mold casting since 1964, and it is a legitimate technique, not a fake. Handmade pots show one-off shapes and tool marks. The available sources name no reliable signs of a forged maker's mark. There is no JIS or ISO standard for kyusu. What does exist is official recognition as a traditional craft: Tokoname ware received it on June 2, 1976, and Yokkaichi Banko on January 12, 1979. Wares that fail the Japanese Food Sanitation Act may release harmful substances when filled with boiling water, so it is best to avoid a cheap pot with no maker's name. ## Care Clay absorbs odors, so wash the pot with hot water and no detergent. Running water into the spout rinses leaf off the strainer. Dry it with the lid off and the spout down, so no water sits in the strainer. Clean mesh and sasame with a soft brush; metal tools and toothpicks damage the holes. In the morning, fill the pot with boiling water for a minute or two before the first brew to clear the smell of yesterday's leaf. Advice on tea stains varies. The Ukou-gama workshop recommends soaking overnight in 1 percent bleach and then rinsing with boiling water, while other sellers advise against bleach and use baking soda instead. Keep an ordinary kyusu off the flame and out of the microwave, oven and dishwasher, and don't pour cold water in right after boiling, or it may crack. A broken lid cannot be replaced on its own, since every lid is ground to fit its body. Beyond that, the usual rules of [teaware care](https://howtotea.me/teaware/care-and-collecting/care) apply. ## Common questions Which kyusu should I buy first? A yokode of 180–270 ml with a built-in strainer, and a sasame or obiami one if you also plan to brew fine-cut sencha. For one person 100–150 ml of water is enough, for two or three 200–350 ml. Japanese teapots are often labeled with a number followed by 号 (go): size 10 holds 180 ml, size 15 holds 270 ml. How is a houhin different from a shiboridashi? A houhin is a handleless 80–160 ml pot with a lid, usually with a ceramic strainer at the spout. A shiboridashi is smaller, typically 30–60 ml, and usually has no strainer, so the tea runs out through the gap between lid and body. Both are made for gyokuro and high-grade sencha. Do I need a yuzamashi? For gyokuro and fine sencha that need 50–70 °C, it is handy: pour boiling water into the bowl and wait. Everyday sencha and hojicha are brewed at 90–100 °C, so you can skip it there. Notes 1. Ricardo Caycedo, "Experiment: How Much does Water Cool when Pouring?", [myjapanesegreentea.com](https://myjapanesegreentea.com/how-much-does-water-cool-when-pouring); Mitsuru Kobayashi, Nagori Ware, "Yuzamashi: Do You Actually Need One?", [nagoriware.com](https://nagoriware.com/japanese-yuzamashi-guide/). Caycedo ran his tests in Bogotá, where water boils at 91.5 °C. [↩](#fnref1:1) --- ## Navigation - Parent: [Teaware of Japan and Korea](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea.md) - Next: [Tokoname and Banko: Japanese clay teapots](https://howtotea.me/teaware/by-region/japan-and-korea/tokoname-banko.md)