Directory: Taoism


Furo: Style and Form

Furo: Style and Form

Water for making tea is heated in a kettle that is heated over a charcoal fire set in a hearth. The hearth was a standard open square in the floor called an i-ro-ri, 囲炉裏, surround-heart-inner, filled with ash and various implement to support different vessels, which were also hung above the fire. In Chanoyu, the hearth was called a fu-ro, 風炉, wind-hearth.    The earliest form of kama was supported directly on the furo. The kama of the Ki-men-bu-ro, 鬼面風炉, Demon-face-wind-hearth, has a quarter-round flange called a hane, 羽, wing, sits on the furo atop an upright perforated collar called a koshiki, 甑, ring support. Such furo...

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Hibashi

Hibashi

Among the essential utensils in Chanoyu are a pair of metal hi-bashi, 火箸, fire-rods, used by the tei-shu, 亭主, house-master, to move pieces of charcoal, sumi, 炭. The charcoal presentation in the presence of the guests, kyaku, 客, is called sumi de-mae, 炭手前, charcoal hand-fore. Different types of hibashi are used with the fu-ro, 風炉, wind-hearth, and the ro, 炉, hearth. For the furo, Sen no Rikyū preferred simple hollow steel rods with an eye-hole at the end and covered with black lacquer. Hibashi for the ro are hollow, metal rods with mulberry wood handles: kuwa-e, 桑柄, mulberry-handle. The most formal hibashi are kazari hi-bashi, 飾火箸,...

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