Chashaku Scoop
Chashaku
The chashaku carves a single, graceful curve from one length of bamboo. Two scoops is the traditional measure for a bowl of usucha — a quiet ritual object that turns measuring into a gesture.
Character
✦Ships within 48 hours from Takayama, Nara. Complimentary gift-wrapping on request.
- Material
- Smoked bamboo
- Measure
- ≈ 1g per scoop
- Care
- Wipe dry, never wash
The Legend
Of all the tools of tea, the chashaku is the most personal. A single sliver of bamboo, carved into one quiet curve, it was the one object a tea master would make with his own hands — and then give a mei, a poetic name, as if it were a small living thing: “First Frost,” “Returning Geese,” “Morning Cloud.”
Facing his ordered death in 1591, Sen no Rikyū is said to have carved one last scoop, used it at his final gathering, and named it Namida — “Tears.” To lift two scoops of matcha is to repeat a gesture five centuries old. Measuring becomes a kind of grace.
