Hirashimizu-yaki Nashi-Seiji Celadon Teapot: Yamagata Kyusu Guide [2026]

Hirashimizu-yaki (平清水焼, “Hirashimizu ware”) is a pottery fired in the Hirashimizu district at the foot of Mt. Chitose, on the eastern edge of Yamagata City in Japan’s Tōhoku region. The kiln opened around 1801, in the Kyōwa era, when local potters began working the iron-rich clay found in the hills behind the city. That iron is the whole story here: fired under the right conditions, it pulls a soft greenish skin over the glaze and scatters rust-brown flecks across it. The kiln gave that surface a name — nashi-seiji (梨青瓷), “pear-skin celadon.”

A celadon teapot from this kiln is a quiet object. It is not the mirror-smooth Longquan green that the word “celadon” usually brings to mind, and it is not trying to be. The pear-skin texture is deliberate, the speckling is the clay talking back, and the second signature surface — zankin (残雪), “lingering snow,” a white ground dusted with iron spots — reads exactly like the last snow holding on a Tōhoku hillside in April. This guide covers what the kiln makes, the two centuries of history behind it, and the practical question of where an international reader can actually buy a kyūsu (急須, “side-handled teapot”) today.

This article is written for readers weighing a Hirashimizu-yaki teapot against other Japanese pottery and cast-iron options, and for anyone who wants the regional and historical context before the price. We compare it on craft tradition, glaze character, daily usability, and international buying paths — and we are honest about where the data is thin.

Who this is for — and who should skip it

Product overview (from published specs)

The fetched dataset for this listing returned no live price or specification fields at the time of writing, so the table below states only what is verifiable from the kiln tradition and the spec brief. Where a value is not confirmed in the data, it is marked as such rather than guessed.

Sources: Amazon US search (primary, tag moonill-20) + Amazon JP Global Store (secondary, tag moonill-22, sourced listing) + maker tradition. Only the Amazon JP listing reference was available; the live price snapshot was not returned in the fetched data, so price and physical dimensions are marked unconfirmed.

Which finish should you choose?

This piece is listed in 2 finishes. The photos below are the actual 色 options on the listing right now — pick the one you want and confirm it on the product page before ordering, since hand-finished wares vary slightly piece to piece.

急須ドーム青・湯呑み白

🇯🇵 Amazon JP Global Store →

急須紫・湯呑み白

🇯🇵 Amazon JP Global Store →

📌 How does it compare?

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🍶 Shigaraki mug

Price snapshot across stores

Live pricing was not returned in the fetched data, so the JPY and USD figures below are marked as unavailable. Always confirm the current price at the retailer before purchasing.

JPY (¥) is the authoritative price for the specific listed item; USD figures, when shown, are approximate estimates at a ¥150/USD baseline as of mid-2026. Prices in USD are approximate and depend on the current exchange rate.

📍 Where this comes from — place, era, and the craft tradition

Yamagata Yamagata · Tōhoku

Yamagata City sits in a basin in inland Tōhoku, the northern third of Japan’s main island of Honshū, walled in by mountains on most sides — the Zaō range to the southeast, the Ōu mountains forming the prefecture’s spine. It is snow country: heavy winters, hot humid summers, and a long shoulder season when the snow lingers in patches on the slopes. The Mogami River, one of Japan’s three fastest rivers, drains the basin north to the Sea of Japan and was for centuries the region’s highway for rice, safflower dye, and goods. The Hirashimizu district lies on the city’s southeastern edge, at the foot of Mt. Chitose, where the hillside clay carries enough iron to color a glaze on its own. That clay, that water, and that highland climate are why a kiln took root here rather than somewhere flatter and warmer.

The historical anchor for Yamagata as a city is its castle. Yamagata Castle, in what is now Kajō Park near the city center, was the seat of the Mogami clan, whose lord Mogami Yoshiaki expanded it into one of the largest castle complexes in early-17th-century Japan. A castle town means concentrated demand — for tableware, for utility ceramics, for the everyday goods a population needs — and it means trade routes radiating outward. The Mogami River carried Yamagata’s safflower and rice downstream and brought finished goods back. Into that settled, mercantile world the Hirashimizu kiln opened around 1801, in the Kyōwa era, late in the Edo period. Potters worked the local iron-bearing clay, and over the 19th century the district grew to hold several workshops at once — by tradition, around seven kilns operating together, sustained by castle-town demand and Mogami River shipping.

What the kiln does with its clay is the point of the whole tradition. Most celadon kilns across East Asia worked hard to remove impurities and reach a flawless, even green; Hirashimizu went the other way. The iron in the local clay was left to do its work, so the glaze takes on a fine matte texture — the “pear skin” — and the rust-brown flecks scatter naturally across the surface where iron particles break through. The companion zankin surface inverts the palette: a pale, near-white ground with dark iron spotting, named for the way snow lingers in dark patches on a Tōhoku hillside through spring. The mountains around the city, including the Zaō range, are not decoration in this story — they are the source of the same iron-bearing geology that ends up in the glaze.

“Where most celadon kilns spent centuries trying to erase the iron, Hirashimizu let it speak — and named the result after the skin of a pear and the last snow on the hill.”

The continuity case is modest and honest. Hirashimizu-yaki never became a national industrial pottery on the scale of Arita or Seto; it stayed a small district kiln serving its region, which is exactly why the Mingei movement valued it. Yamagata’s crafts are usually told through other materials — cast iron (imono), Yonezawa silk weaving, Tendō shōgi pieces — and pottery is the quiet gap in that list. Hirashimizu-yaki is its flagship: a still-working kiln district, a couple of centuries deep, where a handful of workshops continue to fire the pear-skin green that no other kiln produces in quite the same way. That is the object you are buying — not a mass product, but a regional surface with a fixed address.

What it does well

Weaknesses and things to verify before buying

1. No live price in the data. Pricing for this listing was unavailable at the time of writing. Confirm the current figure on the listing before deciding — do not assume a budget tier.
2. Dimensions and capacity unconfirmed. The fetched data did not include weight, capacity, or measurements. Check the listing for the exact size, especially if you want a specific volume.
3. Texture is intentional, not flawless. The pear-skin surface and iron speckling will read as “imperfect” to anyone expecting glassy, uniform celadon. This is the tradition, not a defect — but it is a fit question.
4. Treat as hand-wash stoneware. Dishwasher, microwave, and induction suitability are not confirmed in the data. Assume hand-washing and gentle handling for an iron-glazed clay teapot.
5. Handmade variation. Color depth, speckle density, and the exact nashi-seiji vs zankin balance vary piece to piece. The item you receive may differ from the photo.
6. International shipping adds cost and time. The sourced listing ships from Japan; factor in shipping fees and possible customs duties for your destination.

Conclusion — which buyer type are you?

Other ways to approach this purchase

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jpmono.com is curated by a Japan-based editorial team (working out of Toyama in the Hokuriku region and Nara in Kansai) and is independent. We do not take payment from the makers we feature; income comes from affiliate links. We do not physically test every product — we read maker specs and source listings.

🤖 This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the source listing data. Facts not present in the available data are marked as unconfirmed rather than guessed.

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