What Are CHAIRE Tea Flasks Japanese tea Ceremony Utensils For Koicha Thick Tea

Now the tea flask is also a very interesting piece of utensil that is used in a tea ceremony. A lot of people will see these tea flasks, these pottery tea flasks, but ask the question, what is it used for? And it comes in where the difference between the service for thin tea and the service for thick tea is. Thin tea is almost always served in a lacquered, either wooden-made tea caddy, as the ones that we've seen. And these lacquered tea caddies, they are usually a bit more playful, a bit more relaxed. They can have different motifs on them, and they are used for wushu chow ways. Now these tea flasks, they are of a higher level. They have a higher pedigree. They are cherished much more. They are more valuable. They are always made from pottery. They come with an ivory lid that has gold foil attached to the backside of it. And they come in a tailor-made brocade pouch, like the ones that you can see here. There are different types of brocades that are used. And of course, you can see some kindan that is woven with a gold thread, so gold paper thread that is woven into the fabric material, the silk material. You have donsu, which is another type of weave. You have kanto. So the names of these fabrics, they are one, the motif, and two, the type of weave. And this is a ho-o kindan. So ho-o is the phoenix bird, and kindan is with the gold thread. Then we have, this one is enshu donsu, and enshu is the motif. You can see the shippo crest in here. And so this checkered motif was favored by Kobori Enshu, the founder of the enshu school. So it's one motif that is often used in our tradition. And donsu is the type of weave. It's a more softer type of weave. This, too, is araiso donsu. It has some gold thread in there, but araiso is fish in the turbulent waves, and donsu is because the weave type is similar to that. Now, of course, with these pouches in which the tea flasks are kept, you can't really see the shape of the tea caddy. So I'm going to remove them for you. The tea flasks are out of their brocade pouches. These pouches are padded as well, and they're lined on the inside. And they are made essentially for the safekeeping of these utensils. They go into a wooden box, which is also for the safekeeping. And then putting them in these pouches, it gives them a bit of a cushion to be safe in those boxes. So everything is thought out and taken extreme care of. In order to make sure that these utensils are passed on for generations. And these shifuku, these brocades, they can be very fragile, very old, and usually they are very valuable. So if you're handling the shifuku, you want to do that at the cord as much as possible. Because if needs be, the cord can be replaced, but the fabric itself is going to be difficult to find again, especially if it is a several hundreds-year-old fabric. And so if you're inspecting it, you always handle it at the cord. And you can see the inside, it's lined. And the cord, the lining, and the fabric is always an important choice that the creator of this has to make so that it's a nice balance of colors. And then there's, of course, the craftsmanship of making these shifuku. Then we have the different shapes. And this one here is our basic. Katatsuki is the shouldered tea flask, and it's somewhat straight on the edges and it's got the shoulders. That is the standard style of tea flask. And then there are different variations on this. There's the mimitsuki. You can see here, this tea flask has also the shoulders, but it has little ears, little handles on the shoulders, which makes it a mimitsuki. And there is a slight variation in handling the mimitsuki chaire during the service of tea. Then this one also is mimitsuki. So it has these ears. But this is known as the anko gata. There's one more that also has a huge lid. That is the taikai, the grand C. It's basically a broad beam chaire tea flask. But some also refer to it as koshi mino. Koshi mino is a straw skirt. There was a tea flask that had that specific motif on it. So there were horizontal carvings on, vertical carvings on the body of this style of tea chaire and that made it look like a straw skirt. And then we have our nasu. This is a, I'm going to talk more about that, but this is a copy of the Fukuhara nasu and a famous meibutsu karamono piece. And then we have this tiny one here, which also has the ears on the body, but this time in a different motif. I did actually a full video and review about this particular tea flask. This is the tamamizu tea flask. And it is shaped like a gourd. The gourd shape is a motif that often comes back in the enshu tradition. And it's also a copy of a tamamizu tea flask that was selected by the founder of our tradition, Kobori Enshu. And then the last shape that I should discuss here that I have here with me is the rousoku de. This is the candle shape. And it looks like a candle because it's narrow. It's straight edged, narrow, a bit wider on the top than on the bottom. And... Now we have to put these back in the bags and there are three basic ways of tying these shifuku. And I will briefly show you how they are done and what the meaning is between the three different methods. So I hope you found this meaningful and you learned something from this. Maybe this has got you interested in learning more about tea ceremony or learning the tea ceremony itself. And that is now also possible with my online six week tea ceremony intensive course through which I will teach you how to fully execute a service on a tray, which you can do at your home. You don't need as many utensils. You don't need these very expensive utensils. You can do it with very basic utensils that you have at home. And I teach you how to host a proper service of tea. So if you are interested, look at the link in the description below. I will have more information on how and where to access my course. And if you enjoyed this video and you would be looking forward to seeing more content like this, then please also click the subscribe button, click the like and leave a comment. Let me know what your favorite tea utensil is, how you use it, which shape does it have? Do you have a tea flask? Which shape does that tea flask have? Or do you have a tea caddy? Then let me know what type of tea caddy you have. I'll be looking forward to reading you. So like, subscribe, comment, and see you in the next video.