I have been breaking my own rules in so many ways lately, and yet for some reason I am loving it. Now what do I mean by my own rules? Well for the most part I have tried to keep pieces of pottery reserved almost exclusively ( there were a few I allowed to cross over previously) for teas from their own country. The odd ones out were always the American artists wares, which I then fit in for their intended purpose based on their size and shape. Yes that means a vast majority of my teaware was used exclusively for Japanese teas, and for Korean tea I was basically down to two items.
But lately I have really been breaking out of my mold, because the main purpose of tea is to be able to enjoy tea. I've suddenly started to do things like use a Japanese Yunomi, and a Korean tea pot to drink a Taiwanese tea. Or use a "yixing" ( not exactly sure of its provenance) to brew Hong Cha then pouring it into Yunomi from Okinawa.
Part of also breaking those own rules, are now teas that I usually enjoy almost exclusively in more of a gong fu setting, if I am not in the mood to fuss with all that repeated pouring, or careful pouring between cups, I sometimes brew several in a row and pour straight into a larger vessel. Or simply just using a larger vessel to brew the tea.
I'm having a lot of fun breaking my self imposed rules, and I am currently feeling that I was far too strict with my rules, aiming for a set of cohesion. I am glad though that with all my teaware I can easily make a nice cohesive set up if I need to.