Teapot from Tea Set with Chinese Landscape

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This tea set with idyllic lakeside Chinese landscapes has a side-handled pot called a kyūsu , used for steeping, straining, and serving tea. Unlike some others, this set also has a yuzamashi , a container used to cool boiled water to just the right temperature for the best flavor when steeping. Seifū Yohei III’s painting teacher, Tanomura Chokunyū (1814–1907), made a visual record of famous sencha events that shows how these kinds of porcelains fit with objects such as a stove and kettle to form a complete set of utensils for tea preparation, and with ensembles of decorative objects meant to inspire creativity The teapot depicts two friends playing a board game on a promontory beyond a two-storied residence, while another figure comes across the entry bridge bearing bags of provisions, hung from the ends of a pole balanced across his shoulders.