Kagami mochi, 鏡餠, mirror mochi, with daidai, 橙, bitter orange, ura-jiro, 裏白, back-white, fern, shi-hō beni, 四方紅, four-directions red-edge paper square, displayed on stand san-bō, 三方,three-directions. The sanbō is made of wood and has eight sides, the gi-tchō, 毬杖, ball-hit, is made of wood and has eight sides. The number eight in Japanese Kanji is hachi, 八, which is symbolic of Infinity in Space, radiating outward in all directions. Kō-gō, 香合, incense-gather, called a buri-buri kō-gō, ぶりぶり香合, plump-plump incense-gather. It is made of wood, octagonal in cross-section, tapered at both ends, with a design motif of ‘Taka–sago’, 高砂, High-sand, shō-chiku-bai, 松竹梅, pine-bamboo-prunus, and a married couple, Uba...
Continue readingDirectory: Daitenmoku
Chasen and the Gorintō
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...
Continue reading