Food safety of Hagi Yaki?

[Noahwhiteman24]

Hello all! This is my first post on TeaChat while I have been a long time lurker. Anyways, around December I ordered this little yunomi made by the artist Mukuhara Kashun featured on artisticnippon because of the positive reviews I had heard about the site: http://www.artisticnippon.com/product/h ... unomi3.jpg
The cup is beautiful and I used it primarily for pu erh and sencha, though a little bit of everthing made its in and out of it. However, I was recently reading that crawling glazes such as this (I don't know if this one is high or low fire) can be unsafe for food because of the tendency for heavy metals to leak out. Is this true? Should this yunomi be used more as a decorative piece or is it safe for use? Thank you in advance!

[Chip]

Welcome to the forum.

I have 2 of this Yunomi.

It is common that the topic of lead/heavy metals comes up regarding teaware. In this case, you can enjoy your cup, but if you really wanted to be certain, you could have a lab run tests on the liquid. But these are considered food-safe.

I will allow one or more of our in house potters chime in on the technical aspects ... they are very knowledgeable and willing to answer questions such as this.

[JBaymore]

Leaching out of Hagi is not an issue... there are no toxic materials in those glazes to leach out.

For a very technical professional level potters discussion (not for the casual reader ) of this whole "food safe" glaze subject... see here: http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/t ... s/?p=53167

best,

.................john

[Noahwhiteman24]

Thank you both for your responses! It's nice to get an extra measure of confidence from two more experienced people. I got worried for a little while because Hagi ware has definitely tended to draw me more aesthetically than other pottery styles (though Bizen keeps a special place in my heart). I'm an amateur potter myself so I might have to check that article out.

Thanks!

-Noah Whiteman