TAKAYAMA CHASEN / TAKAYAMA BAMBOO TEA WHISKS
About 500 years ago / 1500s / Muromachi Period (1336–1573)
Takayama tea whisks are traditionally traced to the mid-Muromachi period, when tea pioneer Murata Juko asked a member of the Takayama ruling family to create a tool for whisking tea. The method was guarded for generations, and Takayama developed into Japan’s best-known center for chasen.
In Japan, a tea whisk is a consumable tool, yet it directly affects the texture and foam of matcha. Different schools and uses call for different numbers and shapes of tines. Today chasen remain essential to tea ceremony while also reaching people making matcha casually at home.
A single piece of bamboo can be split into eighty, one hundred or more delicate tines while remaining one piece at the base. The tips are shaved, separated and woven with thread, transforming one plant stem into an extraordinarily precise whisk without glue or assembled parts.