The Bamboo Matcha Whisk and the Japanese Art in Everyday Items

Traditional matcha whisks are even now a beautiful curiosity in a solemn nook of a tea shop. Many days in Char, customers ask about these unusual objects and their accompaniments. In order to fully appreciate the beauty of the item and its proud placement in the tea shop’s display, we must journey back to Edo period Japan.

The first recognisable chasen were created by craftsmen in Takayama in Gifu Prefecture as an evolution of the Chinese whisks used for Dian Cha (a powdered tea from the Song Dynasty which is whisked into a frothy tea). However, chasen were not widely used until a local priest, Murata Jukō, moved to Kyoto and introduced them as an element of the newly improved tea ceremony, which placed great emphasis on beauty in simplicity. It was at this time that the emperor was presented with his own chasen, which he greatly admired for its delicacy, beauty, and singularity of purpose.

Ever since, the chasen has seen alterations of form, but its essence has been preserved with each generation of craftspeople who tackle the exacting art of whisk making. This has become what we would call a heritage craft in the UK, and is a skill which is becoming harder to preserve in the 21^st century, as is the case with many highly skilled crafts. There are currently 18 chasen masters remaining who devote their lives to the acquisition, refinement, and practice of generations of their families’ combined experience. Many are beginning to take on apprentices from outside of their family lineage for the sake of passing on this wealth of knowledge to someone.

This is part of why Char is so proud to be supporting the continuation of chasen craft, becoming part of this over 500-year-old story.

How Chasen are Made

Bamboo of approximately 3 years old is selected and dried out before carving can commence. This bamboo is cut into sections around 4.5” long. This is split into prongs which are refined finer and finer with gentle manipulations which will give the whisk its inner and outer layers and the distinctive curves. The prongs are shaved and tapered until they are translucent, then curled inwards – a process which requires incredible skill and precision, but a key element in producing the distinctive foam in matcha whisking. Finally, the outer prongs are splayed in such a way that the inner and outer layers of the whisk form, with prongs spaced evenly respectively. There are variations of the number of prongs a matcha whisk may have, depending on the resulting texture and flavour you want from your matcha. As a result, there may be anywhere between 70 and 100 prongs individually honed in a matcha whisk. A highly skilled craftsperson may only be able to make 6 or 7 chasen per day as a result of the focus and precision required in each one. Watch this process unfold in this video of Tango Tanimura, head of the 20th generation of the Tanimura family of whisk making masters. 

This painstaking and well-honed process is a fantastic example of the uniting of craft and purpose in Japanese culture. If the whisk is beautiful, it will create beautiful matcha.

In appreciating the taste experience of a beautiful matcha, one meditates on every level of expertise that unites in its creation: the sadō (tea ceremony) process in its simple elegance of movement, the flowers and the calligraphy chosen to accompany the ceremony, the deep emotional expression conveyed in the clay and glaze of the chawan (tea bowl), the flavour notes of the matcha itself and how your interpretation of the beverage changes on a first, second, and third sip, the sweet explosion of the visually stunning sweets paired with the matcha, and of course some appreciation must be paid to the whisk that makes it all possible, and the hardworking expert craftspeople who ensure the continued survival of this philosophical and historic practice.