Chasen Cream No. 9 · Golden Bamboo, 60 Tines · Usucha

Warm golden bamboo · black thread · 60 fine tines · wide, shallow flare · one of a kind

An unusually wide, shallow head: golden bamboo bound in black thread, its 60 fine outer tines splaying out almost horizontally into a broad, low disc before curling at the tips. Made for a shallow, wide-mouthed bowl, where its reach lets you sweep the whole base in a single pass.

Hand-cut from a single piece of bamboo in Takayama, Nara — the district that has made Japan's tea whisks for five centuries. We spent three days there going workshop to workshop; four artisans agreed to sell to us, several met through the town's chasen museum where the makers gather. One of a kind — we have only this piece.

Five years from standing bamboo to the first cut, then split by hand tine by tine with a single blade. Why a Takayama chasen costs what it does →

Care: rest on a whisk holder (kusenaoki), rinse in warm water only, air-dry. Never soak or machine-wash.