Pounded aluminum?

In the past few weeks I've inherited a few quirky items...but one on the most interesting is a sugar, creamer and tea pot made of hand pounded aluminum.

The handles are cast alminum and shaped like bamboo. The rest of the softball sized vessels look like they've been tapped with a ball-pin hammer. The treatment of the Aluminum kind of looks like pewter.

Is this something that was common somplace or at some time?

They seem Japanese