{"product_id":"zen-bamboo-tea-scoop-signed-by-kotoin-daitokuji-monk-matsunaga-gozan-meibutsu-chashaku-sensin-with-original-tube-and-box","title":"Zen Bamboo Tea Scoop Signed by Kotoin Daitokuji Monk Matsunaga Gozan — Meibutsu Chashaku Sensin with Original Tube and Box","description":"Experience Authentic Japan Art with this Zen Buddhist monk bamboo tea scoop. This Daitokuji Kotoin temple chashaku serves as a signed monk-carved tea ceremony tool and Japanese matcha bamboo scoop, featuring a Matsunaga Gozan hand-carved chashaku and named tea scoop with calligraphy — a must-have for any Tea Ceremony Collector. The mei (poetic name) \"Sensin\" (洗心, Purifying the Heart) is brushed in the abbot's own hand on the shared wooden box, and the scoop rests within its matched bamboo tube — a complete, intact transmission from a living Zen lineage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Matsunaga Gozan (松長剛山), Head Abbot of Kotoin Sub-temple, Daitokuji, Kyoto\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Hand-carved natural bamboo (chiku-bori); single-piece construction from a single bamboo culm\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Contemporary (estimated 2000s–2020s)\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Daitokuji Kotoin, Kyoto, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Length approx. 18.5 cm; Weight approx. 3 g\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Kyotsu-bako (shared wooden box) with abbot's own brushed calligraphy and purple silk cord; Kyotsu-tsutsu (shared bamboo tube) also included\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent — no cracks, chips, or discoloration; honey-warm bamboo tone preserved throughout\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eIn the world of Japanese chado (the Way of Tea), a chashaku carved and signed by the resident abbot of a great Zen temple carries a status above that of a chashaku bearing only a kakitsuke (written inscription from another hand). When the carver and the calligrapher are the same person — when the hand that shaped the bamboo also brushed the mei onto the box — the object becomes a single, unbroken expression of one contemplative mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKotoin is among the most revered of Daitokuji's twenty-four sub-temples. Founded in 1601 by Hosokawa Tadaoki, the patron of tea master Sen no Rikyu's daughter, it has nurtured a tea culture of extreme refinement across four centuries. The sub-temple's karesansui garden and its connection to the Hosokawa clan make it one of Kyoto's quiet epicenters of wabi aesthetics. A chashaku from the hand of Kotoin's abbot does not merely measure matcha — it carries the density of that entire lineage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe mei 'Sensin' (洗心, literally 'washing \/ purifying the heart') is a phrase rooted in classical Confucian and Zen Buddhist thought. It evokes the act of sitting in stillness, allowing the mind to become clear as water drawn from a mountain spring. Each time this scoop is lifted over a bowl, the name is an instruction: be here, be clean of thought, be present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoetic line: 'The bamboo holds the shape of the abbot's silence — pale, unhurried, a mind already washed.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eA chashaku is not simply a utensil. In formal tea practice, it is one of the three central implements — alongside the chakin (linen cloth) and the chasen (whisk) — that a guest observes most closely during the host's preparation. Its proportions, the angle of its kuchi (scoop-head), the presence or absence of a fushi (bamboo node), and the way it bends tell an informed guest everything about the maker's school, intention, and spiritual cultivation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis chashaku is carved from a single length of natural pale bamboo (shiro-dake, white bamboo). The fushi (node) is positioned in the lower third of the shaft — visible clearly in the photographs — placing it in the classic shin-style (formal style) posture favored in Omotesenke and Urasenke traditions. The kushi (inner scoop cavity) is wide, smooth, and slightly concave, allowing it to transfer a full measure of matcha in a single motion without spillage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat elevates this piece beyond a craftsman's chashaku is its provenance: the Zen monk who carved it also named it and inscribed that name onto the kyotsu-bako (shared box) in his own brushwork. In tea connoisseurship, this 'jisaku jishogen' (自作自書, self-made, self-inscribed) status is explicitly ranked above a piece that merely carries the priest's written certification. The calligraphy visible on the box — three brushed characters in a bold, unaffected monk's hand — is not decoration; it is documentation of a living mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe complete set — scoop, tube, box, and original wrapping tissue — arrives as a closed system. Nothing has been replaced or supplemented. For a serious collector of chado utensils, the integrity of the kyotsu-tsutsu and kyotsu-bako as original, matched companions to the scoop is the difference between a display piece and a true tea implement ready for use in a formal setting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaitokuji's influence on Japanese tea aesthetics is difficult to overstate. Sen no Rikyu himself was a lay practitioner there; Takeno Joo, Murata Juko, and the lineages of all major tea schools trace spiritual and aesthetic roots to the temple's abbots. A chashaku from Kotoin is, in the most literal sense, a material connection to that four-hundred-year conversation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e【基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：松長剛山（大徳寺高桐院住職）\u003cbr\u003e• 技法：竹一刀彫り、一管仕立て（白竹）\u003cbr\u003e• 年代：現代（2000年代〜2020年代推定）\u003cbr\u003e• 産地・流派：京都・大徳寺高桐院\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法：長さ約18.5cm、重さ約3g\u003cbr\u003e• 附属品：共筒・共箱（紫紐付き、住職自筆銘「洗心」）\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：良好。割れ・欠け・変色なし。温かみのある白竹の色調を保つ\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【文化・芸術的背景】\u003cbr\u003e茶道の世界において、大寺院の住職が自ら削り、自ら銘を筆した茶杓は「書付のある茶杓」を超える格を持つ。作る手と書く手が同一であること——それは一つの澄んだ精神が、竹という素材を通じてそのまま形になったことを意味する。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e高桐院は大徳寺の二十四の塔頭の中でもとりわけ格調高い一院である。細川忠興（利休の娘婿）が1601年に創建し、四百年にわたって侘びの美学を育んできた。枯山水の庭と細川家ゆかりの茶室は、京都において静けさの中心として今も機能している。その院の住職の手による茶杓は、単なる道具ではなく、その系譜全体の重みを帯びる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e銘「洗心」は、儒教・禅いずれにも深く根ざした言葉である。山から引かれた清水のように心を洗い、今この瞬間に完全に在ることを促す。この茶杓が茶碗の上に傾けられるたびに、銘はひとつの問いかけとなる——あなたの心は、今、洗われていますか。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e詩的な一文：「竹は住職の沈黙の形をしている——白く、急がず、すでに洗われた心の形に。」\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【深層解説】\u003cbr\u003e茶杓は単なる道具ではない。点前の中で客が最も注意深く観察する三つの道具——茶巾・茶筅・茶杓——のひとつとして、その比率、先端の形状、節の位置、しなりの角度によって、作者の流派・意図・精神的な深みが雄弁に語られる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの茶杓は一管の白竹から削り出されており、節（フシ）は柄の下方三分の一に位置する。これは表千家・裏千家の正式な「真」のスタイルに合致する配置である。先端（掬い）は広く滑らかで、わずかに凹みを持ち、一動作で正確な一服のお茶を掬うことができる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの茶杓をさらに高みへと引き上げるのは「自作自書」という格付けである。禅僧が自ら削り、自ら銘を箱蓋に書いた茶杓は、他の書家が書付を記したものより格上とされる。写真に見える箱書の三文字——大胆で気取りのない墨跡——は装飾ではなく、一つの生きた精神の記録である。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e共筒・共箱・元の包み紙まで揃った完全な一式は、何一つ代替されていない。正式な茶席での使用に耐え得る、閉じた完全体として届く。大徳寺が日本の茶の美学に与えた影響は計り知れない。千利休自身がここで参禅し、竹野紹鷗、村田珠光、主要な茶道流派の系譜すべてが、この寺の歴代住職との精神的・美的対話の中に根を持つ。高桐院の茶杓を手にすることは、その四百年の対話に、今この瞬間、参加することである。\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":61927377699186,"sku":"260612_a_2964","price":841.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m53262839727_1.jpg?v=1781235962","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/zen-bamboo-tea-scoop-signed-by-kotoin-daitokuji-monk-matsunaga-gozan-meibutsu-chashaku-sensin-with-original-tube-and-box","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}