Teapot with Pines

Side-handled teapots known as kyūsu and hot water coolers, or yuzamashi, are essential components of sencha tea sets. The teapot is, of course, meant for steeping and serving the tea. Yuzamashi are used to cool boiled water to the ideal temperature for the type of tea to be brewed. This teapot has a pine in underglaze blue on each side. The tip of one of these pines reaches onto the tiny lid, and as with the trees on the Water Cooler with Pines, CMA 2022.163 [http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.163], the trunks are curvy ribbons with little definition. Considering the execution of the two vessels' designs, one might imagine the pot and cooler to have been part of the same set.