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A tea kettle is used exclusively for boiling water at a tea ceremony, and is considered the ceremony's most essential vessel. It differs from other vessels in that its mouth is small. Most are made of cast iron but copper ones are not unknown. The earliest kettle for tea is said to have been made for the priest Myoue 明恵(1173-1232), at the temple Kouzanji 高山寺, by a master kettle-maker in Ashiya 芦屋, Fukuoka prefecture. From this time until the end of the Muromachi period aside from Ashiya kettles ashiyagama 芦屋釜, kettles made in Sano 佐野, Tochigi prefecture, tenmyougama 天命釜 were most in demand. By the late 16c, there were many tea masters who ordered vessels according to their own preferences. Because the tea ceremony developed in the Kansai 関西 region, many artisans went to Kyoto to produce kettles at the Sanjou 三条 kilns. Kettles that passed from generation to generation have special names derived from the history of the owner, the kettles shape, pattern, mouth or finish. Kettles are usually round with rounded, squarish or sloping shoulders. An extensive array of patterns exist including: rough skin arehada 荒肌 sandy skin sunahada 砂肌 or tortoise shell patterns. Others may be finished with Chinese style mountains or rivers, one of the seven gods of fortune, plants, animals and even cloisonne. Kettle mouths have diverse shapes. Some are turned inward, others outward, while others are wide or narrow or notched. Two loops are cast on the shoulder to attach rings when the kettle is to be hung or carried. Often kettles have the shape of an ogre face, but they may have the face of a biting lion, distant mountains, pine cones, or bamboo shoots. Kettle bottoms are rounded, flat and round, or flat and square. The tea ceremony kettle lids chanoyugama futa 茶湯釜蓋, are made of cast iron, and forged at the same time as the body to match the bottoms perfectly. However, lids can also be made of bronze, copper, brass, silver and even from an ancient bronze mirror. Lids have a variety of names depending on their shape. Moributa 盛蓋 are high in the center while *usumoributa 薄盛蓋 are slightly raised but lower than moributa. Lids with straight flat tops, are called ichimonjibuta 一文字蓋. Lids that are high around the rim but with the center indented are called sukuibuta 掬蓋. If the lid rim projects and the top is flat it is known as kakegobuta 掛子蓋. When indented where the knob is placed, the lid is called emyoubuta 恵命蓋. Lids also may have small dots embossed on the top, ishimebuta 石目蓋, or be decorated with a thin linear pattern itomebuta 糸目蓋. The oldest kettles were usually cast to be used with the portable brazier *furo 風炉, and those intended for use on the ordinary fixed hearth *ro 炉, were set on a trivet or hung on a tripod.
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