Japanese Teaware Vendor Recommendations

[teatray]

Thanks a lot, I registered with FJ and it seems nice & straightforward so far, but also very, very dangerous, addiction-wise .

[teatray]

I can recommend Asahido Gallery in Kyoto (website | online shop). They have teaware, vases, sake and other pots. Focus is Kyo-yaki / Kiyomizu-yaki but they also sell other stuff.

The prices are local and they also take off the Japanese sales tax (10%) before shipping internationally. For the items I looked at, this resulted in better deals than some western-facing shops (esp. those quoting prices in USD without accounting for its sharp rise). For example, the spotted gray-on-blue Yuteki sake cup by Kamada Koji costs:

• JPY 30K on Asahdio [equiv. $219]
• JPY 33K on Sazen [equiv. $240] (local Japanese price but without discounting 10% tax; seems to be the usual pricing stragegy at Sazen, also for tea, which results reasonable prices overall)
• JPY 41K (equiv.) on AN [$300]
• JPY 45K (equiv.) on Sazen [$330], if shopping cart is in USD instead of JPY (albeit with free delivery in this case)—I'd avoid that

Ratios were similar for the stuff I got (Izumi Yoshinori Ryusei Cup for JPY 20K; previously bought elsewhere for JPY 22K which didn't exclude local tax as it was shipped to a proxy shopper; AN has a single piece, priced at JPY 32K equiv.).

Shipping to Europe was quick and well-priced via DHL. One of the items was out of spec (cup was 25% wider & 22% shorter than webshop description and my old cup to which it was to be paired), but the owner was super friendly and offered all reasonable options, incl. discount & replacement (for which he took pictures of all variants he had in stock).