Cha dao tools
Have these been around a long time? I'm interested if sets such as these are a recent development or not. You know what I'm talking about, those bamboo tweezers and picks, etc. The only interesting sets I've found are on Hou De's but that's far out of my price range for actual use. Anyone know a source that has something besides the generic bamboo ones that sell for about 10-15 bucks on all the online vendors? I'm not looking for something expensive per se, just something well proportioned, that won't warp, and doesn't smell. Thanks.
Re: Cha dao tools
I think the cha dao set was a Taiwanese innovation... Maybe?
China-cha-dao.com in their teaware section they have quite a few sets to
choose from for $15. They are offering free shipping on tea, not sure if that includes wares or not.
China-cha-dao.com in their teaware section they have quite a few sets to
choose from for $15. They are offering free shipping on tea, not sure if that includes wares or not.
Re: Cha dao tools
Last edited by steanze on May 25th, '14, 16:27, edited 1 time in total.
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Yeah sorry, I did read you wrongbonescwa wrote:Lol I said besides the 15 buck ones that all look the same. Maybe that's really all there are available online. Thanks though, they do have more of a selection than most online stores.

I don't think I've really seen any for less than that though
Re: Cha dao tools
Ah I do like that. Do you have it? Does it have a weird smell?
Re: Cha dao tools
I just bought a cha dao set on ebay for $16.90. It's in a square bamboo vase with 5 tools. I thought it was a good deal.
Re: Cha dao tools
nope, I don't have it... so I don't know about the smell. DTH stuff is usually ok, but I am not sure about this particular product.
Re: Cha dao tools
The Weng Ming Chuan sets on Hou De page are beautiful but very expensive. On the other side, sets made by his apprentices are much cheaper and still beautiful and functional.
Here is a picture of a set I got for myself - although Weng Ming Chuan makes green bamboo utensils no more for possible discoloration.
Unfortunately, you need someone in Taiwan to get you one. I would love to get another one, too, so if anyone can help, let me know!
Here is a picture of a set I got for myself - although Weng Ming Chuan makes green bamboo utensils no more for possible discoloration.
Unfortunately, you need someone in Taiwan to get you one. I would love to get another one, too, so if anyone can help, let me know!
Re: Cha dao tools
By the way, while these apprentice made sets are 10x cheaper, it's still a 150-250 USD per set.
Re: Cha dao tools
Thanks for your response, this is more along the lines I'm looking for. It just seemed curious to me why there isn't a great selection of handmade gongfucha wares, especially in comparison to what is available to Japanese tea ceremonies. Although I know many people say that the Japanese ceremonies have a much longer history, the fact remains that very skilled and detailed work has gone into creating yixing wares for a very long time, so I would suspect that chinese tea brewing also has detail and finesse that would lend itself to fine tools, which I now know exist, but are limited in access from a Western perspective.TuoChaTea wrote:The Weng Ming Chuan sets on Hou De page are beautiful but very expensive. On the other side, sets made by his apprentices are much cheaper and still beautiful and functional.
Here is a picture of a set I got for myself - although Weng Ming Chuan makes green bamboo utensils no more for possible discoloration.
Unfortunately, you need someone in Taiwan to get you one. I would love to get another one, too, so if anyone can help, let me know!
Re: Cha dao tools
Correct me if/where I’m wrong.bonescwa wrote:(…) Although I know many people say that the Japanese ceremonies have a much longer history (…)
If I, skimming through the translated Chanyuan Qinggui, haven’t misinterpreted it, tea ceremonies were a codified part of monastic life at Chan (Zen) temples in China, which would make them older than Japanese tea ceremonies; they would get imported later to Japan along with Chan to become the groundwork for later Japanese tea ceremonies. Given that powdered tea fell out of favor in China later on, Japanese tea ceremonies involving powdered tea must have a longer continuous history, while Chinese tea ceremonies involving powdered tea are older.
Senchado, according to Tea of the Sages, developed out of the tea practices of Chinese literati residing in Japan, which by then would involve loose leaf rather than powdered tea. (Loose leaf also replaced powdered tea at Chinese Chan temples during the Ming, and, by extension, the newly found Obaku temple in Japan; I haven’t found anything about the nature of loose leaf tea ceremonies at Chan temples yet, though.) The tea practices of the literati were first followed by locals as a sort of counter-movement to the formalized and politicized Chanoyu, but later on succumbed to form, having taken cues from Chanoyu, and gave birth to Senchado.
Some of the tools used for preparing loose leaf tea literati-style (or monastically?) have been more or less taken over by Senchado, like tall braziers and side-handled kettles (side-handled kyusus would later evolve as a combination of these Chinese side-handled kettles and Chinese back-handled tea pots). As in, not all of the Senchado tools were newly developed for Senchado. Not making any claims about the wooden tools, though.
…it seems I got sidetracked here.
Last edited by thirst on May 28th, '14, 11:35, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Cha dao tools
I'd be curious to know if there are any published books on codified Ch'an tea ceremonies. I have never heard of any such thing or mention in any classical Ch'an writings. Ch'an lost most of it's steam by the Ming, replaced largely by Tibetan and Mongolian schools of Buddhism.