Buzz Fledderjohn wrote:Now I heard, from a member of Urasenke, that Japanese people who make their own chashaku do not use them. In tea ceremony the utensils are admired by the guests. Therefore it is bad manners (for lack of a better word...it's late
) to use your own chashaku and have people admire it in front of you. If they do make their own chashaku, they usually give them away as gifts.
Ooh, that makes sense. The seniormost student in our tea group did carve a chashaku with a slightly pointed tip, like a flower petal. It's really pretty. It's called tokingata in Japanese, or 兜巾形 in kanji (apparently
tokin may refer to a pointed hat of some type?). She gave it as a gift to Sensei, who then "gave" it to our tea group. It's used by our tea group sometimes, but never when the student who made the chashaku is acting as host.
Here's a webpage on chashaku carving for Joel that I just discovered - w00t!:
http://www.takehei.jp/workshop/workframee.html
And an interesting page on chashaku in general:
http://page.freett.com/roman/chashaku20.html
The world of chashaku is a huge blank area for me. I don't think I've ever received any instruction on it. Anything else you guys want to share would be fantastic!
P.S. Just checked the Chado Wiki
webpage on chashaku, and it says this:
If a second chashaku is used [for the usucha that is served following the koicha], it must be a bit "less" than the one used for koicha, either in age, or Oiemoto generation. It may be non-bamboo (lacquer, wood, other material); it may even be made by the Host.
So maybe it's OK under very limited circumstances?
P.P.S. Apologies for going way off-topic with this!
