What is a chakin?
By Mio.KShare
Of the four objects people buy when they start making matcha at home, three are obvious. The whisk, the bowl, the scoop. The fourth is a small white cloth, and nearly every shop sells it without explaining what it is for.
A chakin is a small bleached linen cloth, roughly 30 by 15 cm, used damp rather than dry to wipe the tea bowl. It is not a drying-up towel and not a napkin. At home you do not need one to make good matcha — but if you own a bowl you care about, a damp linen cloth is the safest thing to put inside it.
What it is, and what it is made of
Chakin are woven from linen or hemp and bleached white. The standard size is about a foot by five inches, which sounds arbitrary until you hold one over a tea bowl: folded into a strip it sits neatly inside the bowl, and the bowl I use is 12.5 cm across. The proportions come from the object it wipes.
The material matters more than the size. Linen releases water quickly, wrings out almost dry, and does not shed fibers into a warm wet bowl. Cotton terry does the opposite: it holds water, and it leaves lint on the glaze that you will find floating in your tea a minute later.
The part most guides leave out: it is used wet
This is the detail that surprises people. The chakin is dipped, wrung out hard, and then used. In practice the bowl is warmed with hot water, the water is poured away, and the damp cloth wipes the inside dry in a few passes.
A dry cloth on a hot, wet bowl drags and leaves fluff. A damp one glides, takes the last of the water with it, and leaves the surface clean. If you have ever wiped a wine glass with a dry tea towel and watched it streak, you already know the physics.
| What you wipe with | How it is used | What it leaves behind |
|---|---|---|
| Chakin (bleached linen) | Damp, wrung out hard | Nothing. The bowl is dry and warm |
| Cotton tea towel | Usually dry | Lint on the glaze, and streaks where it dragged |
| Paper towel | Dry | Paper fibers, especially on unglazed patches |
| Nothing — air drying | — | A cool bowl, and water that thins the first bowl of tea |
Why it is folded, and why I am not going to draw it
A chakin is folded to a set shape before it is used, and when it is not in use it rests in a small lidded container. The fold is taught in practice and it is not the same in every school, which is exactly why online diagrams contradict each other. I practice in one school and I am careful not to present its way as the only way.
What is worth knowing is the reason behind it. The fold gives you a clean face of cloth for the inside of the bowl and a separate part for the rim, and it makes the cloth the right thickness to hold in one hand. At home, folding it into thirds and then in half gets you the same two things.
Do you need one at home?
No. You need a bowl, a whisk, something to measure with, and a way to get the water hot. I would put a chakin well below all of those. What actually belongs in a starter set is a longer argument, and the cloth is not in the first four.
But there is a case for it, and it is not a ceremonial one. If you use a bowl with an unglazed foot or a rough clay body — which most Japanese bowls have — then what you wipe it with decides whether it stays clean. Linen wipes without leaving anything. That is the whole case.
If you would rather not buy one, buy a plain linen napkin, wash it a few times to soften it, and keep it only for tea. Keep it away from soap smells. That is the practical version of the same object.
Looking after it
- Rinse it in hot water after use and hang it to dry flat. Left damp in a ball, linen will smell within a day.
- Keep it for tea only. Once a cloth has been used on a kitchen surface it carries odor, and matcha picks up odor readily.
- Replace it when it yellows or turns limp. A chakin is not a keepsake. Mine get replaced without ceremony, the same way a whisk does when the tines lose their spring.
Questions I get asked
What is a chakin used for?
Wiping the tea bowl. The bowl is warmed with hot water, the water is poured out, and the damp cloth dries the inside before the matcha goes in.
Is a chakin wet or dry?
Wet, then wrung out hard, so it is barely damp. A dry cloth drags on a hot bowl and leaves lint behind.
What size is a chakin?
About 30 by 15 cm. Folded into a strip it sits inside a bowl of ordinary size — the one I use is 12.5 cm across.
Can I use a regular kitchen towel instead?
You can, but choose linen rather than cotton terry, use it damp, and keep it only for tea. Terry towels shed fibers into the glaze and hold kitchen smells.
Do I need a chakin to make matcha at home?
No. A bowl, a whisk and a way to measure will get you a good bowl of tea. The cloth is what keeps the bowl clean, and a plain linen napkin does the same job.
Where this fits
The bowl is the object this cloth exists for: mine is a Mino-yaki chawan, wide and low, and it comes with the whisk and scoop in the starter set. Washing the bowl itself is a separate subject, and a fussier one than most people expect: how to clean a matcha bowl. If you are assembling everything from scratch, the beginner's guide is the place to start.
Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.