LIST OF UTENSILS
The principal utensils of chanoyu. Those with detail pages go deeper — history, parts, use, and secondhand buying points.
HOW TO BUILD A SET — THREE LEVELS
You do not need all of it at once. Do you want a bowl of tea today, to invite people over, or to compose a room? Each answer needs a different set.
A handful of pieces and hot water
A handful of pieces and a kettle of hot water — everything needed to whisk a bowl this afternoon. Starting here is entirely enough.
Thin tea lives in the natsume, thick tea in the chaire. Add a linen chakin and a whisk-shaping stand and you are set; any plate will do for the sweets.
Make tea in front of guests
The utensils of temae — making tea in front of your guests, from boiling the water. With these you can hold a gathering of your own.
An electric heater is fine for the fire. Begin with brazier, kettle, water jar and waste bowl, then build from there.
Compose the setting itself
The alcove, and the fire in the hearth. This is where the season is given form and the whole room becomes one composition.
Scroll, flower vessel and incense box are the alcove’s three. Basket, feather brush, tongs and ash container form the charcoal set, joined by the incense box.
茶碗 — Tea Bowl
The bowl in which tea is whisked and drunk — the utensil that most reveals the host’s taste, chosen anew with every season.
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02 LV.1A bowl today茶筅 — Tea Whisk
A whisk carved from a single piece of bamboo. Takayama in Nara has made them for five hundred years.
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03 LV.1A bowl today茶杓 — Tea Scoop
A slender bamboo scoop for matcha. Small as it is, a named chashaku can carry the theme of an entire gathering.
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04 LV.1A bowl today棗 — Tea Caddy
A lacquered caddy for thin-tea matcha, named for its jujube-fruit silhouette.
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05 LV.2Host a gathering茶釜 — Iron Kettle
The iron kettle whose simmering voice — matsukaze, “wind in the pines” — is the sound of the tea room.
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06 LV.2Host a gathering柄杓 — Water Ladle
A bamboo ladle for hot and cold water. Its single, silent pour is one of the beauties of the procedure.
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07 LV.2Host a gathering帛紗 — Silk Cloth
The silk cloth that purifies the utensils. Folding it — fukusa-sabaki — settles the mind as much as it cleans.
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08 LV.2Host a gathering水指 — Water Jar
The jar of fresh water that anchors the arrangement of the tea-making place.
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茶入 — Thick-tea Caddy
A small ceramic jar for thick-tea matcha, kept in a silk pouch (shifuku) with an ivory lid — ranked above the natsume.
建水 — Waste-water Bowl
Receives the rinse water. Also called koboshi, it works discreetly out of the guests’ view.
蓋置 — Lid Rest
A small stand for the kettle lid and ladle — plain cut bamboo at its most basic, celadon or painted porcelain at its most playful.
香合 — Incense Container
Holds the incense for the charcoal procedure: kneaded incense in ceramic for the hearth season, sandalwood in lacquer for the brazier.
花入 — Flower Vessel
Bamboo, celadon or Iga ware for the tea flowers. “Arrange them as they stand in the field,” taught Rikyū.
掛物 — Hanging Scroll
The scroll in the alcove. A single line of Zen ranks highest — “no utensil comes before the scroll,” said Rikyū.
風炉 — Brazier
The portable hearth for May through October, in bronze, clay or iron; shaping its ash bed is part of the host’s art.
菓子器 — Sweets Vessel
For the sweets that precede tea: tiered fuchidaka for moist sweets, trays for dry ones. Sweets are part of the tea.
炉 — Sunken Hearth
The hearth cut into the tatami from November to April. Cutting a ro is what turns a room into a tea room.
炭斗 — Charcoal Basket
The basket that carries charcoal for the sumi-demae, packed with tongs, feather brush, kettle rings and incense box.
羽箒 — Feather Brush
Three bound feathers — crane, hawk or wild goose — for sweeping ash from the hearth’s edge, set differently for ro and furo.
火箸 — Charcoal Tongs
Metal tongs for laying charcoal: longer for the hearth, shorter for the brazier, with decorative heads.
灰器 — Ash Container
An unglazed vessel of damp ash, served with its spoon and scattered into the hearth during the charcoal procedure.
茶壺 — Leaf-Tea Jar
The great jar of leaf tea. Its seal is cut at the November kuchikiri gathering and the leaf ground to matcha — where the tea year begins.
HOW TO BUILD A SET — THREE STAGES
Sencha utensils need not be gathered all at once either. Begin with a single kyūsu, then welcome guests, then compose the table. Each stage adds a few pieces.
The pieces that decide one cup
Measure the leaf, cool the water, brew in the pot. These decide the taste of one cup — and with kitchen hot water they are all you need to begin today.
One pot is enough — a kyūsu or a hōhin. A plain cup can stand in for the yuzamashi at first.
Carry the tea to the guest
The pieces that carry the tea to the guest: a small white-lined cup to show the colour, set on a saucer and offered.
Cups usually come in sets of five or six. Tin is the classic saucer, but wood or bamboo serve just as well.
Boil the water, set the scene
Boil the water, lay out the pieces, set the scene: the literati tabletop, made from one set of utensils.
The ryōro and bōfura are a pair for boiling water on the table. Baskets and chests hold and carry the set, and quietly set the tone of the room.
急須 — Side-handle Teapot
A small clay pot for steeping and pouring. Every sencha set begins with this one piece.
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宝瓶 — Handleless Pot
A flat pot with no handle, held in the palm. For gyokuro and fine sencha, brewed slowly in cooler water.
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湯冷まし — Water Cooler
A lipped bowl into which boiled water is poured to cool to the right temperature — the key to good sencha.
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煎茶碗 — Sencha Cup
A cup small enough to sit in the palm. Its white interior shows the colour of the tea. Used in sets of five or six.
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茶托 — Saucer
The saucer on which the cup is offered. Tin, wood, silver or bamboo — each material changes the mood.
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茶心壺 — Tea Caddy
A tin caddy for the leaf. At a sencha gathering, the leaves are taken from here.
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茶合・茶則 — Leaf Scoop
Measures the leaf and carries it to the pot. Usually a split length of bamboo; some bear poetic names.
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涼炉・ボーフラ — Brazier & Kettle
A small clay brazier and the earthenware kettle that sits on it — the literati tabletop in miniature.
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水注 — Water Pitcher
Holds fresh water to top up the kettle.
建水 — Waste-water Bowl
Receives the water used to warm the cups and any tea left over. Also called koboshi.
茶巾・巾筒 — Cloth & Holder
The cloth for wiping the cups, and the small tube that holds it.
瓶敷 — Pot Stand
A mat or stand on which the hot kettle or pot is set down.
盆 — Tray
Carries the cups and saucers to the guests.
提籃 — Carrying Basket
A basket that holds the whole set for carrying — made for tea out of doors.
茶櫃 — Tea Chest
A chest for keeping the pot and cups — the tea-room furniture of the home.
炉屏 — Small Screen
A small folding screen stood behind the brazier.
器局 — Utensil Cabinet
A shelf or cabinet that holds the utensils and stands in the room.
香炉・花器 — Incense & Flowers
Dress the room. Literati paintings and bonsai were also displayed at sencha gatherings.
