We talked about things falling on the floor today.
If the chasen falls [before you make tea], you really do need to re-kiyome. But, you also don’t want to get floor into the bowl, ie re-clean the chasen inside the bowl. So, one option (old trick, apparently learned at midorikai or from gyotei), pick up the chasen with R, give to L. Then take hishaku and pour hot water over the chasen into the kensui, turning the chashaku to get water over all of it. It feels really weird, holding chasen at the same time as holding hishaku, but it works! Note that if chasen falls after you make tea, no need to do this.
If the chashaku falls on the floor before making tea… obviously you need to re-kiyome, but there wasn’t a solid answer here. He said that he has had the chashaku fall in the past, and he just left it lying there as it fell until it came time to scoop tea, at which point he re-kiyome’d then scooped. Not sure if I agree with just leaving it there. But apparently Shimura-sensei saw this and didn’t comment so shrug.
If the hishaku falls, there are a few schools of thought. One is that the floor is already clean, so just pick it up and keep going. No need to do anything, because it’s clean! Another is more practical, that it’s the floor and its dirty so you should go back and clean it (ie western thinking). But I wonder on that — aren’t you supposed to be using a brand-new, never-touched-water hishaku? So why would you go back and clean it? Wouldn’t the proper thing to do be to get another new hishaku? The other sits above these two, from Suzuki-sensei, that if it falls you may have broken the joint and it may leak, so you should go back to 1) make sure it doesn’t leak, or 2) just get a new one that is guaranteed not to leak.
But if you buy the floorr-is-clean argument, why would you need to re-kiyome ever? Especially in temaeza, where no one is ever walking anyway? So many mental gymnastics
Karamono chashaku
Yes you CAN use nakabushi chashaku, but really, motobushi chashaku is only used in two places — karamono and gyo no gyo, which is a blend of karamono and daitenmoku. Moreover, these are the only two temae where you stand the chashaku on the lid, ostensibly because you are now resting the fushi on the floor (everything else is either on something or on the chaire lid)
So if you aren’t using a motobushi chashaku, you’re kinda missing the point of motobushi chashaku.
Context: I tried to use an older oiemoto (Nintokusai), but Gengensai is the one who created the motobushi chashaku. I asked, but what if I’m using a nakabushi chashaku? And hence the context.
Temae:
Nothing really standout. Didn’t make any junban mistakes, which was cool.
One minor note that I continue to forget: aisatsu for chashaku/shifuku haiken should happen after koshi fukusa after kiyome karamono, while still kyakutsuki.
KARAMONO RO:
I didn’t actually do karamono ro, but we did go through the points that change. If not listed here, I assume they are either the same, or “same but do it in ro style.”
You come in as usual, bring the bowl behind you and close the door.
Walk to temaeza, mizusashi shomen, and sit. Place bowl karioki with R → L as in furo. Take chaire, turn to imai, kiyome.
QUESTION: Does the chaire go back to mizusashi no shomen, or does it go on the diagonal?
Take bowl back L → R, place at imai, then scoot back (shitai) as usual for furo. You’re doing the same thing, just at temae, ie diagonal.
Coming back in with the kensui, same thing as furo but on diagonal.
Everything else same, except!!! Chasen goes to the right of the hishaku, about 5 mei below the line (heri-uchi). ie, hishaku is on a diagonal with the go resting in the kama. The tip of the hishaku handle should be tangent to the outer edge of the robuchi, ie sotozumi. The chasen then should be on the other side of that tangent line, 5 mei south.
HOWEVER, if the chasen has tea on it, it goes to kensui no migi kata, ie the usual position. So practically, this means that chasen starts on the right after initial chasentoshi → goes to the left after making tea → goes back to the right after final chasentoshi. Note: This will become a pattern in all upper temae from now on. Only for ro.
Some thinking on why… two possible reasons. Maybe a mix of the two.
First thought - keep dirty things away from the guest? So while it has tea on it, keep it away?
Second thought - purely practical. After making koicha, you close kama and turn kyakutsuki for questions. There would be a chasen there if you didn’t do that, so it moves over to the left at the natural time for it to move.
But then why not leave the chasen kensui no kata the entire time? Some absolutely wild pontification: chaki + chasen are a duo, with chaki on L and chasen on R. Maybe in upper temae, you try to maintain that, ie by putting the chasen on R where possible. But because you have a practical issue here with aisatsu in kyakutsuki, you must move it somewhere (and that’s how it lands at kensui no kata).