I have a tea friend in Seattle who has been collecting whimsical things to use for an April Fool's Day chakai. I love his sense of humor and creativity in putting together found objects for the utensils for this chakai.
Take a look at some of these:
Sorry for the cut off image, but if you look closely at this scroll, it is mounted and hanging sideways.
Dandelions in a pickle jar with a chicken clock for an incense container
Here is a rather formal nagaita (long board) set up with the whimsical utensils. An onion tureen for mizusashi, large cup for kensui, mixer for a whisk, medicine bottle for tea caddy, steel ladle for hishaku and teaspoon for a chashaku.
Peeps for okashi!
I wonder if it was just as shocking or whimsical in the late 1500s when Rikyu put his flowers in a bamboo vase, and used a teabowl made by a roof tile maker?
I love this!
ReplyDeleteSteph, thank you for your comment. I once was invited to an Alice chakai. The kogo was a white rabbit, the sweet was a cake with "eat me" written in icing, the scroll was a shikishi written backwards and suspended from the tokonoma in front of a mirror. When Japanese choose themes for chakai, it also reflects these type of iconic images and the guests have a good time working out the clues that the host has provided for them.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. At first, some of those common objects looked jarring to me, but that must be how the found objects that Rikyu used appeared to his contemporaries. And I love peeps! What is the 'blanket' the peeps are wrapped in?
ReplyDeleteI believe they are wrapped in colored an.
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