Michael Plant wrote:
>
> Can I impose upon your good nature, and that of your wife, and
> ask the full meaning of the word "kyuusu"? I thought it was
> a word reserved for those side handle things -- so the geisha
> can serve us without intrusion -- but others it to be a
> thoroughly generic Japanese word for teapot. So, who's right
> here? The extension questions: What is the Japanese word for
> "teapot," and what is the Japanese word for side handled
> teapot?

Actually, "kyuusu" can have handles on the side or across the
top. So it's just a generic word for teapot, albeit in a
Japanese style, and usually smaller than typical western ones.
Small teapots from China or Korea would be called "kyuusu" as
well, though. Japanese would call an English teapot a "teapot",
or, more phonetically, "tei-potto".

--crymad