Maru joku

The maru joku is a tana or display shelf for the tea room.   As you can see from this photo, it has two round shelves and two legs. Both shelves measure 31.2 cm in diameter, and it is 38.8 com tall. The mizusashi is placed on the bottom shelf and the natsume on the top shelf at the beginning of temae.  This particular style of marujoku is Sotan gonomi, favored by Sotan, the third generation in the Urasenke lineage.  It is finished in Ikkanbari, a sort of papier-mache and  black lacquer.  The thick bottom shelf sits directly on the tatami mat.

Here you can see the marujoku being used in the furo season.   This was the first tana that I used and learned to display items on. It can be used for usucha and koicha.  I think that the black lacquer gives the appearance of formality and shows off utensils so well.

At the end of the usucha temae, the futaoki and hishaku are displayed in a changing scenery for the guests. 

The last thing before leaving the room, the host refills the mizusashi  with the mizutsugi water pitcher.  Because this tana has two legs, the mizusashi stays in place on the tana and the katakuchi style (side handled) water pitcher is used. 

There is also a Rikyu gonomi marujoku.  It is of finished paulownia wood and has three small feet beneath the thinner lower shelf, one of which should be directly front and center when placing tana on the tatami.  One other style of marujoku is Hounsai gonomi, and it has a red brown lacquer.