Tea Scoop by Fukumoto Sekio, Daitokuji — Washin

✦ TEA SCOOP (CHASHAKU) — FUKUMOTO SEKIO × SOATSU
"Washin" — Harmonious Heart

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🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]
• Item: Chashaku (tea scoop) with tomobako (original box)
• Artist: Fukumoto Sekio (Daitokuji-ha Shoshunji, Kyoto)
• Carver (shimo-kezuri): Soatsu
• Inscription (mei): 和心 (Washin — Harmonious Heart)
• Material: Bamboo
• Dimensions: Scoop approx. 18.2 cm / Tube approx. 21.7 cm, dia. approx. 2.7 cm
• Period: 2010s
• Condition: Very good. No cracks or damage noted.
• Includes: Original wooden box (tomobako) with inscription
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🔹 [ CULTURAL INSIGHT ]
The chashaku is among the most intimate objects in the tea room. Unlike the bowl or the kettle, it touches the tea directly — a gesture repeated in every gathering, every season, every year. Its mei, or poetic inscription, is not decoration. It is intention made visible.

"Washin" — harmonious heart — locates the scoop within the ethics of chado. Not skill. Not beauty. Heart, oriented toward harmony.
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🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE ]
Fukumoto Sekio is the abbot of Shoshunji, a temple affiliated with the Daitokuji school of Rinzai Zen in Kyoto — the same complex that shaped Murata Juko, Sen no Rikyu, and centuries of chado's spiritual spine. Priest-calligraphers of this lineage do not sign lightly. The characters on this box carry the full weight of institutional and personal practice.

The division of labor here is notable: Fukumoto Sekio inscribes; Soatsu carves the lower shaft (shimo-kezuri). This collaboration between calligraphic authority and craft hand is a recognized form within formal tea culture. The scoop itself — white bamboo, clean in form, bright in tone — holds the restraint that makes the inscription do its full work.
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🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]
大徳寺派招春寺の住職、福本積應師による銘「和心」の茶杓です。下削りは宗篤。白竹の清潔な形に、共箱の力強い墨書が添えられています。禅の精神を茶道具に宿した一点。
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🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ]
• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days
• Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking)
• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials