Chashaku Set, Tea Scoop Set: Container Lid

A rectangular lid that connects to the container base for storing a pair of chashaku. Beyond its practical purposes in the tea ceremony, the chashaku also serves as an art piece. Every feature on these scoops, such as the placement of the indent, not only reflects the craftsmen’s identity but also the host who chose to purchase and use it during the ceremony. With this aesthetic significance of each Chashaku, owners take great care in preserving them, and as a result, lids and bases such as these are carved to perfectly fit together. Thus, ensuring the Chashaku inside cannot be damaged in any way.

Chiba, Kaeko. The Japanese Tea Ceremony : An Introduction. Abingdon, Oxon, England;
Routledge, 2023.
Corbett, Rebecca. “Crafting Identity as a Tea Practitioner in Early Modern Japan: Ōtagaki

Rengetsu and Tagami Kikusha.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, no. 47 (2014): 3–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26401941.

Fujioka, Ryōichi, and Louise Allison Cort. Tea Ceremony Utensils. First edition. New York ; Weatherhill/Shibundo, 1973.

Nishida, Kei. “Everything You Need to Know About Matcha Chasyaku (茶杓).” Japanese Green
Tea Co., March 24, 2024.
https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/blogs/green-tea-and-health/everything-you-need-to-know-about-matcha-chasyaku.

“Search the Collection, Collections, Spurlock Museum, U of I,” n.d. https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/collections/search-collection/index.php?advsf=0&q=Chashaku&or=&g=All&Search=Search.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Traditionally Attributed to Sen No Rikyū | Tea Scoop
(Chashaku) | Japan | Edo Period (1615–1868) | the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” n.d. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53437.