What's In A Name

[hopeofdawn]

Fun question for Teachatters: does any of your teaware have a name? I know certain chawan and other artisan teaware typically are given names, and I've been wondering how prevalent that is among our collections. For that matter, has anyone besides myself given your own personal names to favorite pieces? I'd love to hear the stories (and see the pictures) behind them!

[heliospace]

A great question. I do not name my tea ware. I've only named networks, cats, and a child in this lifetime thus far along.

[Chip]

I have several pieces that I named. One I posted several times is named Fuji due to the likeness accidentally revealed in the staining of the Hagi Sendai SO.

[debunix]

I name quite a few pieces that remind me of something. It's not always the fanciest, or the largest, or the most dramatic....just those that happen to strike a particular chord.

[Alex]

I got a Hohin called "Pelican"....true story

[Noahwhiteman24]

I have a lovely Shimizu Ken reduction teapot (courtesy of Alex!) that I just call "The Nosaka Reduction". It does not get a whole lot fancier than that, and my friends get a kick out of it.

[Chip]

... rabbit trail but sort of related... we named several cats after several Tokoname artisans. Such as Yoshi for Yoshiki. (Not to mention Fuji the cat )

[chamekke]

I only have one chawan that came with a name (as far as I know). It's a Seto chawan with a design of the bodhisattva Jizo on it, and it came with the name Michishirube ("Guidepost"), I guess because many guideposts are inscribed with an image of Jizo.

In Japanese tea-ceremony class we're always giving names to the tea scoops... but we just make those up for the occasion, as part of our practice. (Seasonal names for thin tea, "deep" Zen names for thick tea.) My sensei has some tea scoops with proper names, but needless to say they only get taken out for special occasions.

My dream is to have a chawan made with a groundhog design. I've never thought about what to call it, though. "Shadow and Light", perhaps.

[Noahwhiteman24]

Very interesting idea! What is the significance of the groundhog to you and your tea?

[chamekke]

Very interesting idea! What is the significance of the groundhog to you and your tea?

Er, it's a bit roundabout... there's a minor Japanese festival on Feb. 3 called Setsubun (associated with the lunar new year) in which beans are ceremonially thrown at a "demon" - usually the father of the household, appropriately costumed - in a (now mostly playful) ritual to cleanse bad energies. In the tea room, the occasion is often commemorated with utensils decorated with/named for symbols of Setsubun.

Anyway, as Feb. 3 is next door to Groundhog Day, and both dates share the distinction of being midway between winter equinox and spring equinox (= Candlemas in the Christian calendar, Imbolc in the Celtic; also the time most of us really start to notice the days getting longer), I always thought it'd be nice to celebrate a properly North American tea event with groundhog-related utensils. (Welcome to my idée fixe.) As it is, if I'm in the tea room around that date, and we get to the point where I'm asked for the name of the tea scoop, I have to forcibly restrain myself from saying Guraundohoggu de gozaimasu.

[Evan Draper]

Guraundohoggu de gozaimasu.

OMG do you think it's too late to improvise a chashitsu in Punxsutawney cuz I am THERE

[hopeofdawn]

Gah, I start a topic, and then promptly get busy and forget all about it! I love hearing the stories and names so far--it's really interesting to hear where both the teaware and the names for them come from! And I also want to see a 'Groundhog' chawan, lol!

So in the interests, I wanted to share one of my named pieces. Only about half my collection has names, either given by the artist or given by me. The rest haven't quite 'spoken' to me yet, I guess. This one, though, is still a much beloved piece that got its own name early on--my 'Rock' hagi, which I've christened 'Snowmelt'--there's just something about the glaze that reminded me of melting snow over dark earth in the spring.

[hopeofdawn]

I got a Hohin called "Pelican"....true story

Ok, I definitely want to hear the story behind that name! Or does it just have an extra large spout, then?

[Alex]

The first time I used it on the table my 6 year old daughter came in and started laughing at it and then ran up stairs shouting "MUM DAD'S JUST BOUGHT A TEAPOT THAT LOOKS LIKE A PELICAN!!1!"

IMG_1409.JPG (25.5 KiB) Viewed 1200 times

So its name was decided

[hopeofdawn]

lol--I think she was right! You have a very perceptive daughter.