Show Off Your Pots and Cups, Part III

[augie]

Moderator Edit: Find out what led up to this conversation at "Show Off Your Pots and Cups, Part II."

Your cat is like - "Tea again? When are we having tuna?"

Cat: "put down that #%^&@# gaiwan and go fetch the can opener"

Nice garden, 'Nuki. Both you & salsero have green thumbs.

My 6 y.o. & I planted an Oak sapling for Earth day and some knucklehead came by and stepped on it! grrrrrr I'm sticking to houseplants.

[joelbct]

According to the Marukyu-Koyamaen website, there are several different types of bamboo used for chashaku (scoops), including: susudake (as above), shimidake ("stained" bamboo, I think), and gomadake (which literally means sesame bamboo - sesame-coloured presumably?).

There are probably even more types than that... but how they rank against each other, in terms of either formality or rarity, I do not know.

Well, if you can read Japanese, this book may help you find out!





People take their tea scoops seriously....

[olivierco]

According to the Marukyu-Koyamaen website, there are several different types of bamboo used for chashaku (scoops), including: susudake (as above), shimidake ("stained" bamboo, I think), and gomadake (which literally means sesame bamboo - sesame-coloured presumably?).

There are probably even more types than that... but how they rank against each other, in terms of either formality or rarity, I do not know.

Well, if you can read Japanese, this book may help you find out!


People take their tea scoops seriously....

I will surely buy it with my next amazon.co.jp order
ISBN-10: 4473017079
Here is the amazon link

[chamekke]

Well, if you can read Japanese, this book may help you find out!

<snip>

People take their tea scoops seriously....

Oh lord... in tea, people take everything seriously

I can read hiragana, and episodically I even struggle to cram katakana into my noggin... but kanji is some time off yet. There are maybe two dozen kanji that I can recognize, and even fewer that I can write.

Some tea books include furigana here and there, luckily. Those are the tiny little kana characters that appear over/next to some of the "rarer" kanji, so that Japanese readers who aren't familiar with these specialized kanji are able to make out the words. If it weren't for those, I'd be lost!

[joelbct]

I will surely buy it with my next amazon.co.jp order
ISBN-10: 4473017079
Here is the amazon link

Thanks for the ISBN, I couldn't find it on amazon. I have this one on my list, and the Raku book arrived last week, ISBN-10: 4473017044.

[olivierco]

I will surely buy it with my next amazon.co.jp order
ISBN-10: 4473017079
Here is the amazon link

Thanks for the ISBN, I couldn't find it on amazon. I have this one on my list, and the Raku book arrived last week, ISBN-10: 4473017044.

How is the raku book?

[joelbct]

How is the raku book?

I like it. Lots of images, mostly older unglazed or minimally glazed antique chawan. It is definitely worth 1,800 yen, probably 1,600 yen w/o the tax. I made the mistake of buying it through ebay for $60us with shipping, I won't be doing that again!

Japanese Culture ebay store has images of the book's interior.

[MarshalN]

Snork! I can't begin to keep up with you guys...

Actually I'm not even sure whether this is susudake (naturally darkened or smoked bamboo) or one of the other darker grades. I do remember a tea friend saying that dark bamboo is prized and, therefore, more expensive as a rule. But not much more than that!

According to the Marukyu-Koyamaen website, there are several different types of bamboo used for chashaku (scoops), including: susudake (as above), shimidake ("stained" bamboo, I think), and gomadake (which literally means sesame bamboo - sesame-coloured presumably?).

There are probably even more types than that... but how they rank against each other, in terms of either formality or rarity, I do not know.

This chasen is supposedly made of what they literally call "coal bamboo". This is stuff that were part of older houses, and are often quite old (100+ years). They age over time due to smoke from the stove, etc, and so take on a darker colour, and are also supposed to be stronger, etc etc. And yes, they cost more...

I just really liked the colour so I bought the chasen. I think it looks a good bit nicer than the regular ones.

[witches brew]

I've seen some discussion on mint tea, but not on Moroccan teaware. Although it isn't a tea-producing country, it is a tea-drinking country. Sweet spearmint and gunpowder tea, served in glasses like these from the Marrakech bazaar.

[tenuki]

I gotta post some pics of my 3 dollar chasen so all of you can feel better about yours.

[chamekke]

Snork! I can't begin to keep up with you guys...

Actually I'm not even sure whether this is susudake (naturally darkened or smoked bamboo) or one of the other darker grades. I do remember a tea friend saying that dark bamboo is prized and, therefore, more expensive as a rule. But not much more than that!

This chasen is supposedly made of what they literally call "coal bamboo". This is stuff that were part of older houses, and are often quite old (100+ years). They age over time due to smoke from the stove, etc, and so take on a darker colour, and are also supposed to be stronger, etc etc. And yes, they cost more...

Ah, thank you for the information. Very interesting.

A couple of years back, our tea group was expecting a guest from Japan who was going to give us a chashaku-making workshop. Part of the deal was that he was to bring with him some bamboo along with carving implements. We had the chance to request dark bamboo rather than the lighter-coloured "standard" bamboo at the time, and I remember that I was willing to commit to the extra $$$ involved. However, the event fell through... and that was the last I ever heard of dark bamboo!

It is really gorgeous stuff, isn't it?

[joelbct]

A couple of years back, our tea group was expecting a guest from Japan who was going to give us a chashaku-making workshop. Part of the deal was that he was to bring with him some bamboo along with carving implements. We had the chance to request dark bamboo rather than the lighter-coloured "standard" bamboo at the time, and I remember that I was willing to commit to the extra $$$ involved. However, the event fell through... and that was the last I ever heard of dark bamboo!

Bamboo Chashaku Blanks for carving your own, from tea-circle.com. I don't know why they cost so much, maybe each pack contains multiple blanks. If you look around, you could probably find a better price.

[chamekke]

Bamboo Chashaku Blanks for carving your own, from tea-circle.com. I don't know why they cost so much, maybe each pack contains multiple blanks. If you look around, you could probably find a better price.

Thanks, Joel - very kind of you to point those out. I think I've seen these blanks on eBay, too.

Really though, I'm not in a hurry to carve my own chashaku (got plenty already) - at least, not until I have someone willing to oversee my work and point out where I'm going wrong. It would be awful to hack away on my own and ruin a $30 blank with a single slip of the knife.

All this talk of bamboo carving reminds me of when I first took up the uilleann (Irish) pipes. The chanter uses a double reed... which must be handmade. My late piping teacher was endlessly patient as he taught me the ropes: how to trim a piece of California cane, get it to approximately the right proportions using a gouge, and take it to final perfection (or disaster) by careful, seemingly endless sandpapering. At the end of several hours' work, you might have a decent-sounding reed. Or not! (Oh, how I envied those blasted Scottish pipers, with their store-bought, factory-made reeds...)

[MarshalN]

Chashakus, I swear, are the single most expensive thing in the whole matcha setup. I regularly come across these hundred dollars+ chashakus.... it's amazingly how much they go for.

Chasen, on the other hand, do not cost a lot. There don't seem to be old, antique, famous chasens at all -- some are on the high side, but they don't go THAT high. I guess because it's a product that will eventually wear down, there's no point in spending too much money on it.

You can buy these bamboo, btw

http://www.bluestone.co.jp/meiboku/bamb ... sudake.htm

I think the dimensions are mm -- so 20cm long and whatever diameter you want, and the price in yen next to it (6405, 6720, etc). Not cheap for a bamboo stick.