Tsutsujawan, tall tea bowl

Our master showed us these bowls at the last night lesson. I hope you can see the difference that these bowls are a little taller than ordinary types. These tall tea bowls are called tsutsujawan used in a certain season. Do you know when they are used?

Tsutsujawan is used only during the winter. Maybe you are wondering why? Our master told us that the shape of bowl keeps the tea hot longer. I think it is the main reason for it. Tsutsu means tube in Japanese, tube tea bowl that is. It sounds strange right? So I consider calling it tall tea bowl. I hope it describes the item better. Now it’s already spring season on Japanese calendar so it is no longer applicable to use tsutujawan. Even it’s not in the winter now, my wife, Hiro, used tsutsujawan on the lesson just to practice how to use it.

Hero seemed to have the difficulty moving the *teawhisk in tsutsujawan. (*teawishk: a special utensil made of bamboo used for preparing matcha) The tustsujawan that Hiro used had the smaller diameter and taller rims, which are restricting its whisking latitude, I think. Using tsutsujawan needs time to be practiced before getting used of it. I will use it on the next lesson and see how it goes (^_－)－☆