Copper cookware has several merits that other materials lack. Since copper conducts heat rapidly, it takes less time to cook. Professional chefs usually use a copper frying pan when making tempura because the oil heats evenly without hot spots. It is also believed that, due to the metal's sterilizing properties, food cooked in copper containers lasts longer. Some even say hot water boiled in a copper kettle tastes better.
Despite all those merits, it's perhaps difficult to understand why a certain copper kettle can go for 280,000 yen. This particular kettle is handmade, though, by a veteran artisan in Niigata Prefecture's Tsubame City, and it takes a week to complete.
"Too expensive?" says coppersmith Yonesaku Sasage. "It is so strong you can use it over 100 years. If it is handled properly, the older it gets, the more it shines. Furthermore, it is made by a special technique that has been designated as a [prefectural] intangible cultural asset."