Kama (chanoyu kettle)
A lidded iron kettle with no spout and no handle, set over the hearth in a tea room and left there for the whole gathering. The absent spout is the point of the object: water is not poured from a kama, it is lifted out a ladleful at a time, so the kettle never leaves the fire and the room never loses the sound of it.
Identity
- Category
- Kettle
- Native name
- 釜
- Romanised
- kama, chagama
- Also called
- tea ceremony kettle, hearth kettle
- Material
- Cast iron, usually with a bronze or lacquered lid knob
- Typical capacity
- 1500–4000 ml
- Skill level
- Advanced
Porosity
Not porous. It contributes nothing of its own to the liquor, so it can be moved between teas freely and washed with detergent without consequence.
Not porous. The interior is bare iron and builds a mineral and oxide layer in use, as any unlined iron vessel does. The claim that this makes the water sweeter is very widely repeated and TeaHQ has found no controlled comparison establishing its size.
Where it comes from
Japanese, and specific to chanoyu rather than general teaware. A kama belongs to a room and a hearth; it is not an alternative to a domestic kettle and does not work as one.
Named here rather than presented as generic equipment. The object belongs to a practice, and TeaHQ describes it from the outside.
If you do not own one
Any kettle, for anyone outside the practice. A tetsubin is the nearest object that can actually be poured, and the two are regularly confused: a kama has no spout and a tetsubin has one.
This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.
Brewing methods it is used for
- Whisking (bowl-prepared powdered tea) — Powdered leaf suspended in water rather than steeped and strained — the only common preparation in which the leaf itself is consumed rather than discarded.
- Koicha (thick matcha) — Matcha prepared thick enough to pour like paint rather than to whisk into foam. It is not a stronger version of everyday matcha but a separate preparation with its own motion, its own grade of powder and, in chanoyu, its own place in the sequence — and it is the older of the two.
Tea types it suits
Care and maintenance
Empty and dry with residual heat after use; standing water rusts bare iron. Never scrub the interior. A kama that has been allowed to rust through is a repair job for a specialist, not a domestic one.
Other kettles
Sources
This page is TeaHQ synthesis. No external source stands behind the description, the material or the account of how the object is cared for. Where the record names a tradition, that attribution is TeaHQ’s own reading of common practice rather than a citation.
TeaHQ names no maker, brand or shop and has nothing to sell. Nothing on this page should be read as advice to buy the object — the substitute note above exists because owning it is usually optional.