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Japanese-Made Nambu Tekki Samovar Tetsubin
Now, wherever you are and wherever you go, you can feel like you are here in San Francisco, sitting at Samovar, by drinking tea with our handmade Japanese Nambu Tekki Samovar Tetsubin. It wears our name proudly… but it isn’t just a tea fanatic’s equivalent of a band t-shirt – it’s a skillfully and traditionally handcrafted iron-and-enamel teapot that will last you years and years.
Unlike the many mass-produced tetsubin on the market, Nambu Tekki tetsubin are crafted in Mizusawa and Morioa, Japan, where the tradition of iron casting dates back 800 years. There, about 80 of the world’s most renowned ironworking studios have banded into a cooperative. With great skill and attention to detail, this collective crafts cast iron products ranging from beautiful and sturdy tetsubin to attractive streetlights for shopping districts to intricate and precise automobile parts.
Experienced craftspeople (including a number of government-recognized Master Craftsmen) make these teapots one-by-one. They pay careful attention to the thickness of each part of the pot. (Even thickness means skillfully crafted tetsubin are more lightweight, able to retain heat and strong than mass-produced or amateur-made tetsubin.)
The interior of each pot is painstakingly enameled, and the difference between a Nambu Tekki pot and other tetsubin is apparent if you feel the inside of each pot. Additionally, the surface of each pot is sanded and burnished for an appealing texture, and features a unique identifying stamp (located just under the spout) to indicate the maker. (Our Nambu Tekki pots are embossed with the name, Nambu Hou Sei Do, or “Nambu Treasure Star.”)
The result of this intensive labor is an authentic, long-lasting, lightweight tetsubin with rust-resistant enamel, an elegant texture and a craftsperson’s mark of origin. Needless to say, we feel this product meets the high quality requirements required of any product that bears the Samovar name.
With a quick pre-warming, these tetsubin are ideal for brewing even the most delicate and finicky teas at a constant temperature, as the iron distributes warmth evenly through the water as the tea infuses. They are also easy to use and, with a little care, easy to maintain.
Specs: Diameter: 5 inches. Height 5 inches. Volume: Hold 8 ounces of liquid. Comes with a removable steel infuser basket that fits inside the pot.
How to use your Samovar Tetsubin:
1. Rinse your tetsubin with water before you use it for the first time.
2. Fill it with hot water and let it sit for several minutes, or until it is warm.
3. Discard the hot water. Add your tealeaves. Add water at the appropriate brewing temperature.
4. Brew your tea, remove the tealeaves and wipe the pot’s exterior with a completely dry piece of cloth.
5. Handle your tetsubin with care and place it on a trivet to avoid burning your serving surface.
6. Serve your tea. Enjoy.
How to clean your Samovar Tetsubin:
These tetsubin pots are beautiful, and very wabi sabi (rustic and hand
made and very natural). With that, there are not synthetic coatings on the iron. If they are left out wet, they might rust. Also, areas of the
pot that get a lot of rubbing and abrasion (like the rim where the lid
sits on the pot) can also build up rust spots. That actually happens in
the lounge, and it's ok.
If you don't like that effect, you can use a
bit of steel wool or sand paper to rub it off, and voila! As long as the
interior of the pot is kept dry, it should remain rust free, and that's
the really important part. Be sure to dry it upside down, after use,
allowing air flow throughout the pot, and this piece will last for
generations.
More about the Japanese-Made Nambu Tekki Samovar Tetsubin:
There is great pride in skilled metallurgy from the craftspeople that make tetsubin and from the nation of Japan. Japan’s long tradition of skilled metallurgy includes a wealth of techniques, such as:
* Hand-forged carbon steel, which was developed about a millennium ahead of other cultures. The renowned quality of Japanese hand-forged steel is still reflected in Japanese steel kitchen knives and samurai swords.
* Incredible gold leaf work, including over 100 grades of gold working materials and a specialized gold lacquer technique.
* Exciting approaches to alloys, including blends that were made nowhere else in the world, like a colorful, near-purple alloy of copper and gold.
However, it is the craft of iron casting (used for tetsubin for daily tea consumption across the nation) that was the first craft to be officially designated by the Japanese government as a national tradition.
The designation of crafts as national traditions was started in the 1970s to aid in the revival and preservation of techniques that date back to the Edo Period (1600 through 1868) and before. The criteria for national designation were enacted into law to counteract the rapidly increasing trend toward mass production and the potential loss of the warmth, richness and charm of the handmade object in daily life. The criteria for designation as a national craft are:
* The item must be enjoyed in everyday life. (Tetsubin are present in many Japanese households even today.)
* The item must be primarily made by hand. (Our tetsubin are hand-poured, hand-sanded and hand-enameled with utmost care.)
* The item must be manufactured using traditional techniques. (The techniques the Mizusawa collective uses to produce tetsubin date back to the 11th century.)
* The materials used should mainly be those that are traditionally employed. (Our tetsubin are solid cast iron, just as tetsubin were hundreds of years ago.)
* The industry must be of a regional nature. (Our tetsubin are hand-made in Mizusawa, which was where the craft of cast iron originated in Japan. It is located in Northeast Japan, near another famous metalworking town called Morioka.)
Although iron casting is also used for other culturally significant items, such as bronze bells for Buddhist temples, it was the iconic-yet-modest tetsubin to first be recognized as a national treasure in this way.
We are thrilled to offer the Samovar Tetsubin as a continuation of the rich Japanese tradition of tea and craft through tetsubin iron casting and as a beautiful way to enjoy tea (and the spirit of Samovar) around the world.
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