Collection: Chashaku (Bamboo Tea Scoop)

A chashaku (茶杓) is the slim bamboo scoop that carries matcha from the caddy to the bowl. It is the smallest object on the tea tray and, in the ceremony, the one treated with the most care — a plain piece of bamboo that a host will keep for decades.

Every scoop in this collection is carved by hand in Nara, Japan. Nara's Takayama district has been the centre of Japan's bamboo tea-utensil craft for roughly five centuries, and the technique is unchanged: bamboo is seasoned, split, shaved down until the tip is almost translucent, then warmed and bent by hand into the curve that holds the powder.

Because the maker works with the grain rather than against it, no two come out the same. Each of these is a single piece — when it sells, it isn't repeated.