Making a Bamboo Whisk with Yamato Takayama

The poignancy and precision of Japanese tea ceremonies can be quite beautiful, and this elegant tradition rests upon its practiced masters and their delicate tools. JCrafts captures a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the bamboo whisk, chasen, which is used during the ceremony to mix together powdered tea and hot water. Yamato Takayama is our guide in the journey, and through a series of photographs, we see his skilled hands carving the whisk from a single length of bamboo, splitting the fibers into strands shaved and curled – much in the way that one puts curls into a ribbon on a present. The craftsmanship and care that Takayama puts into his work is evident through the photos, which also manage to express a whimsicality in the whisk’s playful form.

via