How to clean a chashaku (and why not with water)
Updated By Mio.KShare
The chashaku is the easiest tool in a tea set to look after, and the one most often ruined by being looked after too well. It gets rinsed along with the whisk and the bowl, left to dry by the kettle, and one morning it has a crack running up from the node.
Do not wash a chashaku. Wipe it with a dry cloth or a piece of paper straight after you scoop, and put it away dry, out of the sun and away from heat. If powder has caked on, use a cloth that is barely damp and follow it at once with a dry one. The green stain that builds up on the tip is normal and does not need to come off.
I sell a bamboo scoop, and I use one every day. This is how I care for it, and how it is handled in the lessons I go to.
Why water is the problem
Two reasons, and the second is the one people do not expect.
The first is splitting. Bamboo takes up water quickly and gives it back unevenly, so a wet scoop swells and shrinks in different places as it dries. The weak point is the node, the ridge partway along the handle, and a crack there cannot be repaired.
The second is the curve. The bend at the tip of a chashaku is not carved. The bamboo is heated and bent, and it holds that shape because it has cooled and dried in it. Heat and moisture are what let it bend in the first place, so a scoop that is soaked, or dried on a warm stove, can slowly lose its curve. It will still measure tea. It will no longer look like the thing you bought.
A dishwasher does both at once, with detergent on top.
How to clean it, step by step
- Tap off the loose powder. After each scoop, a light tap against the rim of the bowl drops the last of the tea in. This is also how it is done in the Urasenke thin-tea procedure I study.
- Wipe it dry. When you have finished, wipe the scoop with a dry cloth or a folded piece of paper, from the handle toward the tip. Do it straight away, before any damp from the bowl sets the powder.
- Only if something has stuck, use a cloth that is barely damp, then a dry one immediately. Never run it under the tap.
- Put it away dry. Lay it flat in a drawer, or keep it in the bamboo tube it came in. Not beside the kettle, not on a sunny windowsill.
A new scoop needs nothing more than this. There is no seasoning or soaking before the first use. Wipe off any dust from the box and start.
(For what the scoop is and why it is so valued in tea, see what is a chashaku.)
How a scoop is treated in the tearoom
In a lesson, the chashaku is never washed at all. At the start of the procedure it is wiped with the silk cloth, the fukusa, in a set movement along its length. It is wiped the same way again near the end, before the utensils are put away. That is the whole of its cleaning.
It is also the utensil with the most attention paid to it. When the guests ask to look at the caddy and the scoop after the tea, the principal guest asks two things about the scoop: who carved it, and what name it carries. Scoops are given poetic names, often seasonal ones, and when a scoop has no name from its maker, the host chooses one for the day. It is a small piece of bamboo that is treated as the host's own voice. Nobody puts that under a tap.
What takes water and what does not
The rule is not "never wet a tea tool." It depends on what the tool is made of.
| Tool | Water? | How to clean it |
|---|---|---|
| Chashaku (scoop) | No | Dry cloth or paper after each use |
| Natsume (tea caddy) | No | Dry, soft cloth inside and out. No detergent |
| Furui (sifter) | No | Tap it out, brush off dry powder and wipe it with a dry cloth. Do not wash it: the canister rusts |
| Chasen (whisk) | Yes, plain warm water | Rinse in the bowl, no soap, then dry standing up |
| Chawan (bowl) | Yes, warm water | Rinse and wipe; no dishwasher |
The whisk and the bowl each have their own page: how to clean a matcha whisk and how to clean a matcha bowl. For the caddy, see what a natsume is.
The green tip, and when to replace it
Over months the tip of a bamboo scoop turns faintly green where it meets the tea. That is not dirt. Do not scrub it, and do not sand it. On an old scoop it is simply the record of how much tea it has measured.
A scoop that has been cared for this way lasts for years. I would replace one only for two reasons: a crack at the node or the tip, or mold, which happens when a scoop is put away damp in a closed tube. Neither can be undone. At the price of a scoop, I would not try.
Questions I get asked
Can you wash a chashaku with water?
No. Water makes bamboo swell and shrink unevenly, which splits it at the node, and heat with moisture can relax the curve of the tip. Wipe it with a dry cloth instead.
How do you clean a chashaku for the first time?
Wipe it with a dry cloth to remove any dust from the packaging. It needs no soaking or seasoning before use.
Why is my chashaku turning green?
Matcha slowly stains the bamboo at the tip. It is normal, harmless, and a sign of use. Leave it.
Can a chashaku go in the dishwasher?
No. A dishwasher combines water, heat and detergent, which is everything that cracks bamboo and loosens its curve.
How should you store a chashaku?
Dry, lying flat or in its bamboo tube, out of direct sun and away from the kettle or any other heat.
Where this fits
The scoop I stock is a single piece of white bamboo, and it comes with a bowl and a whisk in the starter set. The natsume and the sifter follow the same dry rule. How much a scoop actually holds is here: how many grams is a chashaku scoop. And for the whole routine from powder to bowl, how to make matcha.
Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.