Tea whisk - Chasen

A bamboo whisk used to prepare matcha tea. It is also written as chasen or chasen. The first appearance of the tea whisk was in the Chinese Song Dynasty Emperor Huizong's book "Daikan Charon" (Great View of Tea) and in the word "Jikufussou" (General Secretary) in the book "Chagu Zusan" (Illustrated Guide to Tea Ceremonies) by Shen'an Rōjin. The "Daikan Charon" section on "Sen" reads, "For a tea whisk made by an old bamboo master, the body should be thick and heavy, and the whisk should be loose and powerful," and says that a tea whisk should be made from dead bamboo, with a thick and heavy shaft and a rough and strong tip. In Japan, it is said that the first tea whisk was used for the Obuku tea ceremony, which was started by the monk Kuya in the mid-Heian period, but the sources are uncertain. However, in the Middle Ages, tea whisks made and sold by tea masters based at Kuya-do in Kyoto (built by Kuya's Buddhist disciple Sadamori), and the "Yugaku Orai" contains a passage about "rabbit's foot purple bamboo tea whisk," which shows that the purple bamboo tea whisk was popular and was nicknamed "rabbit's foot." In the 16th century, with the rise of the tea ceremony, the production areas of tea whisks also expanded, and as the "Chagubitoshu" (1554) states "chasen, Nara tea whisk, Hataeda Namikiri, Owari and Kaga," we can see that Nara tea whisks were considered the best, and that some were produced in Hataeda, Kyoto, Owari, and Kaga.

Chasen can be broadly divided into three types based on the bamboo material, weaving thread, and shape. The green bamboo used in New Year's is for celebratory occasions, but there are also white bamboo (Urasenke, Enshu school, etc.), soot bamboo (Omotesenke, etc.), and purple bamboo (Mushanokojisenke, Sohen school, etc.). The weaving thread can be white, black, or red, and there are shapes with no knots, no knots, and medium knots. In terms of the way the tines are set, Nara Takayama Chasen are made in 48 types, ranging from 32 to 120 tines, including true, small, rough, five-minute long, and small, and are used according to preference according to the school.

[Kouichi Tsutsui]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

抹茶(まっちゃ)を点(た)てるための竹製のささら。茶筌、茶箋とも書く。茶筅の初見は、中国宋(そう)代の徽宗(きそう)皇帝の著『大観茶論』の「筅」および審安老人の『茶具図賛』にみえる「竺副帥(じくふくそつ)」の語である。『大観茶論』の「筅」には「茶筅以筋竹老者為之、身欲厚重、筅欲疎勁」とあって、茶筅は枯れた竹でつくり、軸は厚く重いのがよく、先は粗く強いものがよいといっている。わが国においては、平安時代中期、空也上人(くうやしょうにん)が始めたといわれる皇服(おおぶく)（大服）茶(ちゃ)に使われる茶筅が最初だと伝えられるが、資料的には不確実である。とはいえ、中世には京都の空也堂（空也の法弟定盛の建立）を本拠とする鉢叩(はちたた)きが茶筅をつくって売り歩いており、『遊学往来』には「兎足紫竹茶筅」の一文がみられ、紫竹茶筅が好まれ、兎足と異称されていたことがわかる。16世紀になると茶の湯の興隆とともに茶筅の生産地も広がりをみせるようになり、『茶具備討集(ちゃぐびとうしゅう)』（1554）には「茶箋、奈良茶箋、幡枝波切(はたえだなみきり)、尾張(おわり)并加賀」とあるように、奈良茶筅を最上とし、京都幡枝(はたえだ)、尾張、加賀の産もあったことがわかる。

　茶筅は竹材、編み糸、形状によって大きく三つに区別できる。正月の青竹は祝儀用であるが、ほかに白竹（裏千家、遠州派など）、煤竹(すすだけ)（表千家など）、紫竹（武者小路(むしゃのこうじ)千家、宗徧(そうへん)流など）に分けられ、編み糸には白糸、黒糸、赤糸の別があり、形状別に無節、止節、中節のものがある。また穂の立て方としては奈良高山茶筅には真、数穂、荒穂、五分長、小茶筅などの32本立てから120本立てまでの48種がつくられており、流儀によってそれぞれの好みで使い分けられている。

［筒井紘一］

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