Dominic T. wrote:
> However, they are used for water only mainly in modern Japanese tea
> ceremony so that may be where you were coming from. But originally and
> still they were used for both purposes. Like I said almost more often
> they were used secondarily for tea because the water was already
> boiling for heat/humidity so either some leaves were thrown into the
> pot or the water was used for making tea. I know a few Japanese friends
> whose family members still use unglazed tetsubin with the strainers for
> their daily tea, and many vendors quite clearly will tell you the
> proper way to use your tetsubin is for brewing tea not for boiling
> water on the stovetop.

> Hell, I know one old Chinese man who boils water in his yixing on a gas
> stove directly and then adds in his tea... who am I to argue? The pot
> looks really cool from the fire/tea on the outside too, so nothing is
> stopping you from using a tetsubin on the stove... and it is much more
> sturdy than Yixing so go for it if you want. I'm not aware of any
> secret tetsubin police
>
> - Dominic

To understand Japanese tetsubin's proper/traditional use, one has to
take a look at the use of such iron pots in ancient China (from which
the Japanese borrowed). The answer can then be divided in 2:
- before and during Tang dynasty, tea was boiled together with the
water,
- after Tang, during the Sung, Yuan... dynasties, iron pots were only
used to boil water.

Since the main Japanese tea ceremony is using matcha (directly inspired
from the Sung dynasty), we can conclude that the traditional use for a
Japanese tetsubin is to boil water (not to make tea in it).

For me, I find my tetsubin very convenient and stress free, because
once the water has boiled it stays at a very high temperature and I can
brew my tea several times without thinking about water temperature
anymore. (I wrote an article about it in my blog this week, by the
way).

It's interesting that Dominic mentions the Yixing teapot used as a
kettle. I hope it doesn't sound like I want to contradict him (I
respect his tea passion very much), but it actually makes perfect
sense. Teapots are the 'descendants' (a better word may be evolution)
of ewers that were used to boil water in earlier dynasties.

Stéphane