Tame-nuri Lacquer CHABAKO Set with Pine Maki-e | CHABAKO -Japanese Tea Box

Artist: Unsigned (Mumei)

Because each piece is handmade, some pieces may be warped or stiff. Some pieces may also have chips, but if these are kiln marks that occur during firing, we inspect them and treat them as good products.

This work can also be seen at wanova's secret gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo.
If you would like to see the actual piece at the gallery, please contact us to plan your visit.

A complete chabako — everything needed to prepare matcha, resting together in one lacquered box.

The lid carries a pine motif drawn in fine gold lines. The pine stays green through every season; the trailing vine runs unbroken — an auspicious pairing, long favored on utensils meant to last.

Lift the lid, and the set appears, piece by piece: a small chawan (tea bowl); a natsume (tea caddy) and chasen-zutsu (whisk case) bearing a gold chrysanthemum-and-paulownia motif; a furidashi jar for small sweets; a chakin cloth and its case; a bamboo chashaku in its sleeve; two brocade shifuku pouches; a fukusa silk cloth; the kakegō inner tray; and an uguisu — the small metal pin that holds the whisk upright, used in the Urasenke "moon" procedure.

The wooden storage box is inscribed "Rikyū-gata Chabako" — the classic Rikyū form.

Unsigned, as most utensils of this kind are. What we can confirm, we list below; what we cannot confirm, we do not write.

A chabako temae uses no ladle and no water jar — hot water is poured straight from the kettle. An electric kettle is all you need. A guide to a simple, four-utensil way of tea is enclosed with every box.