Directory: Fukusa

Purification cloth


Kagami Biraki: Making and Breaking Mochi

Kagami Biraki: Making and Breaking Mochi

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...

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Dragon in Chanoyu Part 2

Dragon in Chanoyu Part 2

Ga-ran-dō, 伽蘭洞, Help-orchid-cave, set with utensils for March, when we have memorials for Sen no Rikyū. Kakemono picturing Rikyū by by Sen-gai Gi-bon, 仙厓義梵, Hermit-precipice Righteous-Sanskrit. . Tsuri-gama, 釣釜, suspend-kettle: the un-ryū gama, 雲龍釜, cloud-dragon kettle, is suspended over the ro from a kusari, 鎖, chain. There is no need of a go-toku, 五徳, five-virtue, trivet, to support the kama. The tsuri-gama is used by Urasenke in March, the third month. The third month is identified with the zodiac sign Tatsu, 辰, Dragon. The utensils pictured with the tsuri-gama are for Rikyū’s memorial Tea observed on March 28.   The Unryū gama features a raised design of a dragon,...

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Kobukusa

Kobukusa

A ko-buku-sa, 古帛紗, old-cloth-gauze, also written with Kanji, 古袱紗, is a small square of fine fabric that is used to display or hold a prized Tea utensil. The fabric is doubled, so that it is hemmed on three sides. It is kept in the front folding of the kimono, futokoro or kai, folded in half like a Japanese book, with the fold on the right, together with a folded fuku-sa, 帛紗, cloth-gauze, and folded pack of kai-shi, 懐紙, heart-paper. Because of its kept location, it is also called a kai-chū ko-buku-sa, 懐中古帛紗, heart-middle old-cloth-gauze. The kobukusa is kept in the futokoro, 懐, heart, the front folding of...

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