Directory: Bamboo

Chasen, Chabana, and Buddhism

Cha-no-yu, 茶の湯, Tea-’s-hot water, is sharing tea with others. In its early days, tea was a medicine used for many purposes. Tea came in many forms, and in Buddhism, tea was drunk before meditation, to keep awake. When offered to the Buddha and other revered spirits, procedure and protocol was established. Flowers are an essential offering to the Buddha, and the most important flower is the lotus, hasu, 蓮. When Zen Buddhism was brought to Japan it came together with a way of preparing and drinking tea. Tea became inseparable from Zen. (a) The kake-mono, 掛物, hang-thing, shiki-shi, 色紙, color-paper, paperboard with calligraphy ‘‘Cha Zen Ichi Mi’, 茶禅一味,...

Chashaku and Sensu

The root end of the bamboo cha-shaku, 茶杓, tea-scoop, is at the same end as the handles of both of the sen-su, 扇子, fan-of. The distance between the bamboo fushi, 節, node, and the handle end of the chashaku and the papered section of the yellow sensu. The distance between the chashaku fushi and its scoop is similar to that of the handle of the black sensu. Were the curve of the scoop to be flattened, the measurement would be the same. The sensu is the implement of the kyaku, 客, guest, while the chashaku is the implement of the tei-shu, 亭主, house-master. The kyaku...

Chasen

Cha-no-yu, 茶の湯, tea-’s-hot water, is made with ma-tcha, 抹茶, powdered-tea, that is blended with hot water using a cha-sen, 茶筅, tea-whisk. There are many different sizes and styles of chasen. The standard chasen is made of a single piece of aged ‘white’ take, 竹, bamboo, with a length of the 3 sun kujira-jaku, 鯨尺, whale-span, 11.5 cm. Although the diameter of the bamboo varies, the standard Japanese diameter is approximately .7 sun kane-jaku, 曲尺, bend-span, or .55 sun kujira-jaku, 2.4 cm. It is a bit curious that the chasen is made using the kujira-jaku, because bamboo objects are usually measured with the kane-jaku, 曲尺, bend-span. The length...

Chasen and the Gorintō

In Cha-no-yu, 茶の湯, tea-’s-hot water, the cha-sen, 茶筅, tea-whisk. The chasen is a length of bamboo that is cut into many tines at one end, and has thread wound around the bamboo to separate the outer ring of tines. By itself alone may represent the Go-rin-tō, 五輪塔, Five-ring-tower. The Go-rin, 五輪, Five-rings or principles, are Chi, 地, Earth, Sui, 水, Water, Ka, 火, Fire, Fū, 風, Wind, Kū, 空, Void. The Kanji for ring, 輪, also means the Indian concept of chakra, points or areas on the human body. The chasen is round to manifest the chakra which is a circle. The word Gorintō is composed of...

Futaoki

The height of Rikyū’s take futa-oki, 竹蓋置, bamboo lid-rest, measures 1.8 sun kane-jaku, 1.8 寸曲尺, “inch” bend-span: also 18 bu (分) kane-jaku, 180 rin (厘)kane-jaku. The 1.8 sun kane-jaku measurement equals 1.44 sun kujira-jaku. Ideally, the bamboo lidrest is made of freshly cut green bamboo: ao-dake, 青竹, green-bamboo, hiki-kiri, 引切, draw-cut (sawn), futa-oki. Is the origin of the aodake futaoki a sakazuki made of aodake, and perhaps for drinking o-mi-ki , お神酒, hon.-sacred sake, at a Shintō ritual? The green bamboo cup at the right, ao-dake sakazuki, 青竹盃, green-bamboo sake cup, h. 2” – 1.7 sun kane-jaku. The height of the green bamboo futaoki used by Take-no...