A Japanese Tea Table, from Glass to Steel to Iron
Japanese tea gear comes in a handful of materials, and each one changes how you brew and how you use it. Here are four, sorted from lightest and cheapest to heaviest and most expensive.
Hario Cha Cha Kyusu Maru — a glass kyusu you can actually watch the tea in
Hario has made heat-resistant glass in Japan since 1921, and the Cha Cha Kyusu is its take on the traditional side-handle teapot: a round heat-resistant glass body with a fine strainer. You can see the leaves open and the color change, which is the main reason to choose glass over ceramic. At around $17 and with well over fifteen thousand ratings on Amazon, it's by far the cheapest way into Japanese tea gear on this list. The glass is Hario's work; some of the parts, like the strainer, may be made elsewhere, so don't buy it expecting a fully made-in-Japan piece.
Kinto Unitea — a glass pot with a lid that doubles as the strainer
The Unitea is a 720ml heat-resistant glass teapot with the strainer built into the lid. A one-touch mechanism lifts the strainer out of the water when the tea has steeped enough, so there's no separate infuser to fish out. It's sold on Amazon as a Japan import. It's a good fit for a desk, a kitchen counter, or a table where more than one person is drinking.
Nagao TM-500 — a stainless teapot from Tsubame-Sanjo that won't chip
Tsubame-Sanjo in Niigata is Japan's best-known metalworking region, and Nagao is one of its makers. The TM-500 is a 500cc teapot in 18-8 stainless steel with a built-in strainer, labeled made in Japan. It's a different idea from glass or ceramic: it's tough enough to throw in a bag for a trip or into the office kitchen. The listing notes it isn't dishwasher safe, so it's a hand-wash teapot.
ITCHU-DO Hakeme Tetsubin — a Nambu cast-iron kettle for the long game
A tetsubin is a cast-iron kettle for heating water, in the Nambu ironware tradition of Iwate Prefecture, and you pour its water into a teapot rather than steeping tea in it. This one is a 1-liter kettle with a brushed-stroke "hakeme" surface. It's the most expensive piece on this list by a wide margin, and a cast-iron kettle is heavy and slow to heat compared with an electric one, so it's for people who like the ritual of boiling water. Check the listing for which stoves it can be used on before you buy.
Which one fits
Glass (Hario, Kinto) is for people who like to watch the tea. Stainless steel (Nagao) is for a durable pot that travels. The cast-iron tetsubin is a different thing altogether: it's a kettle for water, so pair it with a teapot rather than buying it in place of one.
More Japan-sourced picks, verified available on Amazon.com, are on the Japan Finds page.