Red Clay from the Gold Mines of Sado Island.

swordofmytriumph
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Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:43 pm

Will do. Think I’ll wait a week until They’re a bit more seasoned then post notes. :)
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OCTO
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Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:35 pm

Looking forward.
swordofmytriumph
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Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:12 am

As promised, though a week late, my notes on the pots I got. Today I’m doing the Nosaka pot by Watanabe Tozo. I’ll test the other soon. I’m only doing a casual comparison with a gaiwan today nothing too in depth, but honestly the difference is so huge I don’t need to be too rigid with my comparison. Again tested with my Li Shan.

It’s only been a couple weeks and already the pot has really improved. Compared to the gaiwan the tea is much richer, and more flavorful. All aspects of the tea are just...more. Bigger. Louder. While both the lower and higher notes are boosted, the lower notes of the tea are boosted more than the higher notes. That could be part of the reason I was thinking the pot was eating the higher notes to begin with. Now that the pot has some seasoning, the higher notes are back in fill force, but all the more enjoyable because the deep rich part of the tea is more present. Honestly I didn’t realize before what I was missing before. There’s just so much going on that wasn’t detectable before. The pot has a perfect pour.

Edit: also forgot to mention it makes the tea MUCH sweeter. Very sweet. Very nice with the Li Shan.
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Last edited by swordofmytriumph on Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
swordofmytriumph
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Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:13 am

Here’s a close up and a look at that perfect pour.
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swordofmytriumph
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Fri Oct 18, 2019 7:28 am

I posted in another topic about how I was looking for a pot to improve my roasted oolong, and decided to test the pots I already have, and lo and behold, the Nosaka oxidation fired pot works wonders on roasted teas! A lot of the time, as the steeps progress, I find a higher note taking over a lot of my roasted tea, I wouldn’t call it a flavor so much as a sensation and I’m very sensitive to it, even in very good teas I can sense it. It acts like the metallic tang you would get if you took a penny and sucked on it. My goal was to reduce that particular sensation while leaving the rest of the tea alone. And the Nosaka does that really well. The higher notes are still present, but they don’t take over the tea. Also, the pot has a beneficial effect of somehow separating the flavors all around and just making it easier to taste each note.

I tested two different teas for this, comparing it to a gaiwan. I used one tea that I considered to be a very good tea, and one I considered to be inferior (that I knew would give me a really strong metallic sensation). The good tea was improved by the flavors just being easier to discern, the pot had a clarifying effect and kept the tea balanced even in the later steeps (this tea didn’t really need much help, it was one of Tillerman’s Loashi teas).
For the inferior tea, the first steep was almost indistinguishable from the gaiwan except that the clarifying effect made each note stand out. By the second steep it was obvious that the pot was reducing the metallic sensation, and by the third steep, the gaiwan test was undrinkable it was so metallic whereas the stuff from the pot was fairly decent.

I’m gonna do a Nosaka vs Kobiwako test sometime in the next week to see which one I like better for my goashan (seeing as how i was using the Nosaka for my goashan before). I’ll create another topic for that once I get around to it.
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Victoria
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Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:04 pm

I’m glad you resurrected this thread, I had forgotten about it. Just yesterday I posted about Nosaka clay kyusu by Shimizu Ken and asked if anyone had both Nosaka and Mumyoi clay oxidation fired kyusu that can comment on any differences in steeping tea results. As I understood it, after Shimizu Ken passed away Hojo stopped calling the Sado Island clay Nosaka and ‘improved’ the blend and is now just calling it Mumyoi clay by Watanabe Tozo. However, I now see this isn’t true and that a version of Nosaka clay is still being used by Watanabe Tozo, just not the same as Shimizu Ken’s blend. It also looks different. Now I’m wondering if anyone has both Nosaka kyusu by Shimizu Ken and Watanabe Tozo to compare with high mountain oolong.

I have not tried using my Nosaka Shimizu Ken for roasted oolong, I reserve those kyusu for lighter roast high mountain. Same goes for Maekawa Junzo‘s Kobiwako clay kyusu.
swordofmytriumph
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Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:35 pm

Victoria wrote:
Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:04 pm
I’m glad you resurrected this thread, I had forgotten about it. Just yesterday I posted about Nosaka clay kyusu by Shimizu Ken and asked if anyone had both Nosaka and Mumyoi clay oxidation fired kyusu that can comment on any differences in steeping tea results. As I understood it, after Shimizu Ken passed away Hojo stopped calling the Sado Island clay Nosaka and ‘improved’ the blend and is now just calling it Mumyoi clay by Watanabe Tozo. However, I now see this isn’t true and that a version of Nosaka clay is still being used by Watanabe Tozo, just not the same as Shimizu Ken’s blend. It also looks different. Now I’m wondering if anyone has both Nosaka kyusu by Shimizu Ken and Watanabe Tozo to compare with high mountain oolong.

I have not tried using my Nosaka Shimizu Ken for roasted oolong, I reserve those kyusu for lighter roast high mountain. Same goes for Maekawa Junzo‘s Kobiwako clay kyusu.
Sadly, I don’t have one of Ken’s pots, but the Watanabe Tozo pots that I have (Nosaka and Mumyoi), are both hugely different in their effects. I use my Mumyoi pot for young sheng, and I genuinely think of it as my miracle pot, out of all my pots, if I had to pick one to make sure I never lose, it is this pot, I never drink my sheng without it, it makes my tea so much sweeter.

I posted a Mumyoi vs Nosaka in the Ode to the Kyusu topic here viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17&p=10296&hilit=Mumyoi#p10296. After drinking out of it for a while, I can say that one change from that review was that I am now sure of is that the Nosaka was NOT eating the lower notes, it was lifting the higher ones.

It’s a bummer that, out of all of the new pots that Hojo posted, he didn’t post more oxidation fired Nosaka, as I now need another one!
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LeoFox
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Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:43 am

@swordofmytriumph
I am looking for a japanese clay for roasted oolongs and found your posts very helpful.

Are you still using the oxidation nosaka for roasted oolongs?

Also, just to confirm, do you mean the "Watanabe Tozo Nosaka Rough Clay" that is on Hojo's list? Can you also let me know your Hojo item number?

Finaly, by roasted oolong, do you just mean taiwanese, or are you including yancha?

Thank you for your help!
Vintagetea
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Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:08 am

I like to use mumyoi for green tea, especially pot of tozo watanabe.
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LeoFox
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Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:20 pm

Vintagetea wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:08 am
I like to use mumyoi for green tea, especially pot of tozo watanabe.
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This looks very different from the pots tozo makes these days for hojo. How old is yours? I like the look of the spout on yours. The spout in his more recent pots pour very badly.

Here is a link with pics to some of his older pots.

viewtopic.php?p=31981#p31981

Ive attached examples of his more recent pots sold by hojo.
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From hojo's website
From hojo's website
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Vintagetea
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Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:42 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:20 pm
Vintagetea wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:08 am
I like to use mumyoi for green tea, especially pot of tozo watanabe.
Image
This looks very different from the pots tozo makes these days for hojo. How old is yours? I like the look of the spout on yours. The spout in his more recent pots pour very badly.

Here is a link with pics to some of his older pots.

viewtopic.php?p=31981#p31981

Ive attached examples of his more recent pots sold by hojo.
Image
Image
Attachments
I don't know old of this teapot, I just know it is tozo wantanabe by signature.
I don't know old of this teapot, I just know it is tozo wantanabe by signature.
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LeoFox
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Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:04 am

Vintagetea wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:42 pm
LeoFox wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:20 pm
Vintagetea wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:08 am
I like to use mumyoi for green tea, especially pot of tozo watanabe.
Image
This looks very different from the pots tozo makes these days for hojo. How old is yours? I like the look of the spout on yours. The spout in his more recent pots pour very badly.

Here is a link with pics to some of his older pots.

viewtopic.php?p=31981#p31981

Ive attached examples of his more recent pots sold by hojo.
Image
Image
Image
Do you remember when and where you bought it?
Vintagetea
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Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:21 am

LeoFox wrote:
Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:04 am
Vintagetea wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:42 pm
LeoFox wrote:
Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:20 pm


This looks very different from the pots tozo makes these days for hojo. How old is yours? I like the look of the spout on yours. The spout in his more recent pots pour very badly.

Here is a link with pics to some of his older pots.

viewtopic.php?p=31981#p31981

Ive attached examples of his more recent pots sold by hojo.
Image
Image
Image
Do you remember when and where you bought it?
I bought it at an old Japanese pottery store in Vietnam.
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LeoFox
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Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:08 am

Just received Watanabe Tozo Joaka (gold mine) back handle teapot (105-110 mL)
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Here it is in the shadows after being washed upon arrival
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The construction is very rough, which is something I like. The guy is in his 80s! Fingerprints are everywhere. It looks less gritty than the nosaka.
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Here is a side by side comparison with a late 70s Hong qing shui ni from Bok in the morning light. The volumes are almost identical. The joaka is about 10% lighter: 112 vs 101 g. Most of that difference is in the lid. The bodies are 1 gram apart.
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Guess which one has a better pour :mrgreen:

One other interesting thing about this pot is that the inside is very smooth while the outside feels rough. Not sure how this was achieved.

Color is hard to tell as always, but is a touch more brown and red than this:

https://www.pantone.com/color-finder/7592-C

Clay is claimed by Hojo to be from Aikawa gold mine:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sado_mine
Specifically, this from the ogiri tunnel
Last edited by LeoFox on Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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OCTO
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Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:47 am

LeoFox wrote:
Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:08 am
Just received Watanabe Tozo Joaka (gold mine) back handle teapot (105-110 mL)
Image
Looking forward to your findings...... :) :) :)
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