{"product_id":"bamboo-chashaku-tea-scoop-zui-un-by-takahashi-etsudo-daitokuji-myojoji-zen-priest-named-piece","title":"Bamboo Chashaku Tea Scoop Zui-un by Takahashi Etsudo Daitokuji Myojoji Zen Priest Named Piece","description":"Named by a Zen abbot of Daitoku-ji's Myojo-ji — this bamboo chashaku carries the inscription 瑞雲 (Zui-un, Auspicious Cloud). Takahashi Etsudo's brushwork marks both the paulownia tomobako and bamboo tube. A named tea scoop chashaku bamboo Japanese tea ceremony Daitokuji Zen priest inscription antique matcha tool. Honey-gold bamboo, intact node, original two-piece cedar stopper tube, shared box.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: 高橋悦道 (Takahashi Etsudo), abbot of 明星寺 (Myojo-ji), a sub-temple of 大徳寺 (Daitoku-ji), Kyoto\u003cbr\u003e• Inscription (銘): 瑞雲 (Zui-un \/ Auspicious Cloud) — brushed on tomobako lid and bamboo tube\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Hand-carved bamboo chashaku; signed brushwork on box and tube\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Showa–Heisei period\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kyoto, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Approx. 18.5 cm length\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Original paulownia tomobako (共箱) with abbot's inscription; bamboo tube case with two-piece wooden stopper included\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Very good; bamboo pale honey-gold, no cracks; brushwork clear and unfaded; stopper fits cleanly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【日本語解説 — 基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e• 作者：高橋悦道（大徳寺塔頭・明星寺住職）\u003cbr\u003e• 銘：瑞雲（共箱蓋・竹筒の両方に揮毫）\u003cbr\u003e• 素材：竹（茶杓）、桐（共箱）、杉または桐（竹筒・蓋）\u003cbr\u003e• 制作時代：昭和〜平成期\u003cbr\u003e• 産地：京都\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法：長さ約18.5cm\u003cbr\u003e• 箱：共箱（桐）＋竹筒ケース付き、蓋は二分割の木製栓\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：良好。竹は蜂蜜色の淡い光沢、割れなし。墨跡は鮮明。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eDaitoku-ji has shaped the aesthetics of Japanese tea for five centuries. Its sub-temples — each governed by a Zen abbot with a practiced hand in calligraphy, poetry, and tea — produced some of the most quietly authoritative tea objects in the tradition. Myojo-ji (明星寺), among these inner precincts, carries that same weight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e瑞雲 (Zui-un) is not decorative. In Buddhist iconography, auspicious clouds appear at moments of spiritual opening — at the arrival of bodhisattvas, at the turning of a new era, at the threshold between ordinary time and sacred time. To name a chashaku 瑞雲 is to invite that quality of air into the tea space itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEtsudo's brushwork on the bamboo tube — bold, unhurried — holds the same presence as the scoop it protects.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA named piece carries the teacher's breath. This one carries cloud.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【日本語解説 — 文化的背景】\u003cbr\u003e大徳寺は五百年にわたり日本の茶の美意識を形成してきた。その塔頭に住した禅僧たちは、書・詩・茶の三道を一つとして生きた。明星寺もその静かな系譜のうちにある。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e「瑞雲」は飾りではない。仏教的図像において、瑞雲は菩薩の出現、時代の転換、日常と聖なる時間の境目に現れる。その名を茶杓に刻むということは、その気配を茶席の空気ごと招くことである。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e竹筒に揮毫された悦道の書は、内に収まる茶杓と同じ静けさをもって、見る者に語りかける。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e名のある茶杓は、師の息吹を宿す。この一本は、雲を宿す。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eThe chashaku occupies a singular place in the vocabulary of tea. Of all the utensils assembled for a gathering — the bowl, the kettle, the natsume, the whisk — the tea scoop alone passes through the host's hand in silence, touching nothing but the powdered tea itself. It is the most intimate of instruments, and for that reason it is the one most often named.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe practice of bestowing a 銘 (mei, poetic name) upon a chashaku traces to Sen no Rikyu and the Momoyama masters. A named scoop is not simply a tool — it is a statement. The name chosen reveals the season, the mood, the aspiration of the maker; the brushwork on the box reveals the quality of the mind that named it. To receive a named chashaku from a Zen abbot is to receive, in condensed form, a dharma encounter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHigh橋悦道served as住職 (abbot) of 明星寺 (Myojo-ji), one of the inner sub-temples of 大徳寺, the great Rinzai complex in the Murasakino district of Kyoto. Daitoku-ji's relationship with tea is unmatched in institutional depth: Sen no Rikyu died by its gates; Kobori Enshu shaped its gardens; the sub-temples preserve tea rooms of the highest historical caliber. An abbot of any Daitoku-ji sub-temple occupies a lineage dense with transmitted knowledge, and when such a figure takes up bamboo and carving tool, the result carries that weight without needing to announce it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e瑞雲 (Zui-un) — Auspicious Cloud — belongs to a class of names that do not merely describe but invoke. In Zen iconography and Buddhist painting, clouds mark the sacred threshold: they carry bodhisattvas, shelter mountain hermits, signal the appearance of the extraordinary within the ordinary. To name a tea scoop 瑞雲 is a quiet assertion: that the act of scooping matcha is itself such a threshold moment. The cloud does not rush; it gathers and shifts and opens the sky. So too the motion of the chashaku.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaterially, this piece rewards close attention. The bamboo is a clean honey-gold, the natural node used structurally — its position gives the scoop its characteristic flex. The tube case, also bamboo, bears the same inscription in Etsudo's hand, suggesting the tube was made or prepared at the same time as the naming — a matched set. The two-piece wooden stopper (likely cedar or paulownia) fits with a precision that speaks to a maker who understood that the object's life between tea gatherings is as important as its moment of use. The paulownia tomobako lid shows the inscription in full: 銘 瑞雲 \/ 弁大応悦道 — the formal attribution of the piece.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the collector: named chashaku from Daitoku-ji abbots represent a narrow category of tea object — functional, calligraphic, and institutionally located all at once. They do not appear on the market frequently. When they do, provenance is everything. This piece carries its provenance on its own lid.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【日本語解説 — 詳細解説】\u003cbr\u003e茶杓は茶の湯の道具のなかで独自の位置を占める。茶碗・釜・棗・茶筅が揃う茶席において、茶杓だけが静寂のうちに主人の手を離れ、抹茶だけに触れる。それが最も親密な道具であるがゆえに、銘を与えられる道具でもある。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e茶杓への命名は千利休と桃山の茶人たちに遡る。銘のある茶杓は単なる道具ではなく、一種の言表である。選ばれた銘は季節・心境・志を映し、共箱の墨跡はそれを書いた者の精神の質を示す。禅僧から銘のある茶杓を授かることは、凝縮された形での禅的邂逅を受け取ることでもある。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e高橋悦道師は大徳寺塔頭・明星寺の住職を務めた。大徳寺と茶の深い関係は史上類例がなく、利休はその門前で生涯を終え、小堀遠州は庭を整えた。塔頭の住職はその伝承の密度のなかに在り、竹を手にするとき、その重みは宣言せずとも宿る。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e「瑞雲」という銘は、描写ではなく喚起である。仏教図像において、雲は聖なる境界を示す——菩薩を運び、山の隠者を包み、日常のなかに非常なるものの現れを告げる。茶杓に「瑞雲」と名づけることは、抹茶を掬うその所作そのものが、そのような境界の瞬間であるという静かな宣言である。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e本品の竹は淡い蜂蜜色で節の位置が構造的に活かされており、竹筒ケースにも同じ悦道の手で銘が揮毫されている。二分割の木製栓は精度高く収まり、茶事と茶事の間の時間にも道具としての完結性が保たれている。共箱の蓋には「銘 瑞雲 \/ 弁大応悦道」と正式な帰属が記される。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e大徳寺住職の銘茶杓は機能・書・由緒を一体に備えた稀少な茶道具である。市場に出ることは多くなく、出るときは由緒がすべてを語る。本品は、その由緒を自らの蓋に刻んでいる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ SHIPPING \u0026amp; PACKAGING ]\u003cbr\u003e• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days\u003cbr\u003e• Carrier: Japan Post EMS \/ UPS (with tracking)\u003cbr\u003e• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61748340916594,"sku":"260409_a_2699","price":954.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m15249794159_1.jpg?v=1775738116","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/bamboo-chashaku-tea-scoop-zui-un-by-takahashi-etsudo-daitokuji-myojoji-zen-priest-named-piece","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}