Cowboy Chabako ready for a gathering

I'm planning a tea gathering for 4 guests next Saturday. My "Cowboy Chabako" is ready for the Wakei Chabako temae which was created by Tantansai (Urasenke Chanoyu 14th Grand Master) for his son in WWII who later devoted his life to promoting "Peacefulness through a Bowl of Tea."


On the right is the blue enamel coffeepot for heating water for tea, which is sitting on a copper-lined wooden box that holds the electric heater. Additional sweets will be served in the lidded oval leather box, front right. The cedar chabako, back left, has an usuita, single board, strapped on top. The vintage metal kensui, for receiving discarded rinse water, is a recent Christmas gift. 

The Wakei Chabako temae uses two chawan that nest together with a small lacquered natsume (tea caddy). Angela Rogers made the chawan with cactus motif and I bought the small red raku chawan in Kyoto in 1983. The furidashi sweets container is a tequila glass bound with leather that I fitted with a cork wrapped in gold foil.

See more pictures in my Sept. 24 entry