Kyusu

The Japanese teapot, most often with a handle at right angles to the spout rather than opposite it. Its distinguishing feature is a wide built-in filter — usually a fine ceramic mesh across the whole spout wall — which is what allows deep-steamed sencha’s fine leaf particles to be poured off without clogging.

Brewing vesselNon-porousBeginner急須

Identity

Category: Brewing vessel
Native name: 急須
Romanised: kyusu, kyuusu
Also called: side-handle teapot
Material: Glazed or unglazed ceramic; Tokoname and Banko clays are traditional
Typical capacity: 150–400 ml
Skill level: Beginner

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.

Glazed kyusu are non-porous. Unglazed Tokoname versions season like other clay pots and are traditionally kept for one style of tea.

Where it comes from

Japanese, associated particularly with Tokoname and Banko production.

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

A western teapot works, but a basket infuser does not: fukamushi sencha will clog a basket and under-extract. If only one vessel is available for Japanese green tea, choose one with a wide integral filter.

This one is not marked essential. The tea can be made without it.

Brewing methods it is used for

Kyusu brewing (Japanese style) — The Japanese domestic approach to green tea: a moderate quantity of leaf, water well off the boil, short steeps, and two or three infusions from the same leaf with the times adjusted each time.

Tea types it suits

Green tea

Care and maintenance

Rinse the mesh promptly — dried fine leaf is difficult to remove and gradually reduces flow. No detergent on unglazed clay.

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.

How TeaHQ handles sources

In the chronology

The eighteenth century — Senchadō, and the monk who sold tea in the street

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.

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this piece of teaware against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

Dobin vs kyusu — The Japanese household pot for several people against the one for careful single-cup brewing. A dobin has an arched cane or bamboo handle across the top and is made for hojicha, genmaicha and bancha rather than for the teas a kyusu is designed around.
Gaiwan vs kyusu — Two small brewing vessels from two traditions, both designed around pouring off completely and quickly, and both frequently bought by the same person for the same reason. What separates them is the filter, and the filter decides which leaf each one can handle.
Kyusu vs a basket infuser for Japanese green tea — This is the single most consequential equipment mismatch in everyday tea, and it produces a specific complaint: sencha that tastes thin and simultaneously bitter. The cause is a filter, and no adjustment to time or temperature fixes it.
Kyusu vs houhin — The Japanese teapot and its handleless small relative, and the difference between them is a temperature. A houhin has no handle because it is used at water temperatures low enough that the body can be held, which tells you immediately what it is for.