Journal
How to clean a chashaku (and why not with water)
The bamboo scoop is the easiest tea tool to look after, and the one most often ruined by being looked after too well.
How to clean a chashaku (and why not with water)
The bamboo scoop is the easiest tea tool to look after, and the one most often ruined by being looked after too well.
How long does a Japanese tea ceremony last?
Forty-five minutes and four hours are both right. English calls three different events by one name, and the tea itself is often the shortest part.
How long does a Japanese tea ceremony last?
Forty-five minutes and four hours are both right. English calls three different events by one name, and the tea itself is often the shortest part.
How to burn Japanese incense
Light, wave, stand, leave. The method the Kyoto makers describe, why people in Japan do not blow incense out, how to use ash, and why a stick goes out halfway.
How to burn Japanese incense
Light, wave, stand, leave. The method the Kyoto makers describe, why people in Japan do not blow incense out, how to use ash, and why a stick goes out halfway.
What is the Japanese tea ceremony called?
Chanoyu, sado and chado are all right, in their place. What each word means, which school uses which reading, where the English phrase came from, and what you will actually...
What is the Japanese tea ceremony called?
Chanoyu, sado and chado are all right, in their place. What each word means, which school uses which reading, where the English phrase came from, and what you will actually...
Is matcha cheaper in Japan?
The same tins from the same makers, priced in yen and dollars. Why the gap exists, why it is narrowing this autumn, and what changes for tax-free shopping in November...
Is matcha cheaper in Japan?
The same tins from the same makers, priced in yen and dollars. Why the gap exists, why it is narrowing this autumn, and what changes for tax-free shopping in November...
What is Japanese incense made of?
No splint, no perfume-dipped stick: a dried paste of aromatic wood, spices and tabu bark. The four kinds of ingredient, how the sticks are made, and what natural really means...
What is Japanese incense made of?
No splint, no perfume-dipped stick: a dried paste of aromatic wood, spices and tabu bark. The four kinds of ingredient, how the sticks are made, and what natural really means...
Tomari (とまり) is an old word for a mooring — the place a boat ties up for the night. A bowl of tea is meant to be the same: a few minutes to put the day down. You do not need to know the rules to begin.
Who chose this
I choose everything here by hand, in Japan. I practice tea rather than simply selling the tools for it — I am not a tea master and I do not claim to be. I am a practitioner, which mostly means I have ruined enough bad whisks to know what a good one feels like in the first second of holding it.
Nothing is drop-shipped and nothing passes through a third warehouse. I pack each order in Tokyo and post it from Japan, ceramics double-boxed by hand. If something arrives broken, write within 7 days with photographs of the piece and the box, and I send a replacement or a refund; there is nothing to post back unless I ask. Who writes and chooses all this, and the longer version of why this shop exists.