Oitomi cast iron Hisago Kyusu

This Oitomi hisago (gourd) themed kyusu (teapot) is 6" long x 5.5" high, including handle and spout, and 5.5" in diameter x 2.5" high minus spout and lid. It is urushi (enamel) lined. It has the Oitomi mark molded into the bottom and a Kotobuki label. It weighs 2.34 lbs and came with its infuser (Yay!).

It appears to be unused but I purchased it as "used" for a modest amount on an on line auction site. It is the same size and about the same weight as the tonbo (dragonfly) themed Oitomi kyusu I posted recently. This is a good research piece as is shows that Kotobuki was not always mainly selling Iwachu products. Kotobuki* still has an "artisan" teapot section on their web site where "special" teapots are sold, which is where this kyusu was probably offered.

*Kotobuki went out of business since this was posted. A shame since they offered a wide array of wares guaranteed to have been made in Japan.

This one took quite a while to get to me as the seller was slow to ship it. No complaints, though! I spotted this one late one evening on an on line auction site and there was a "Best offer" option so I fell asleep strategizing about what offer to make the next day and settled on making an offer of 75% of the asking price. I was very surprised and pleased the next morning to find that the seller had offered me a 50% discount(!), so I did not have the opportunity to implement my devious strategy.

Here is a good link if you want to learn more about Oitomi and it includes a link to their web site:

https://www.booniehicks.com/oitomi-cast-iron/

Oitomi and Oigen were founded by the same family and are sister companies. Their marks are somewhat similar and, for awhile, I was very confused when trying to identify the maker of their kyusu until I read about their relationship. What I am learning is that major American distributors like Kotobuki, Teavana and Chen all sold kyusu by several Japanese makers (Iwachu, Oigen, Oitomi, etc.) which can complicate identifying the makers of some of their wares.

Oitomi is still making this kyusu (you can buy it on Amazon!) and several other Japanese foundries and at least one Chinese foundry are making similar versions. On Oitomi's web site, the current version is not lined and is marketed as a two way pot, both a kettle and a teapot. Buying one of these on Amazon is really putting in an order to have one made for you, which takes several weeks as these are individually hand made to order. My impression is that this is a pretty old, traditional design, but I am not certain that is the case and I do not know how long it has been in Oitomi's product line.

Some of my images are a bit off as I am still wrestling with an infection in my eyes, focus problems, cloudy eyes, dry eyes, etc., and cannot really tell if my images are any good while I am taking them. I may redo some of these images when I am better (My progress is good). Sorry!