Sunday, August 9, 2015



Two tana (shelves) 


Yoshino-dana
The Yoshino-dana style was favored by Ennosai, the 13th generation grand tea master of the Urasenke school (1872-1924). The inspiration for this design came from the round window of a tearoom used by the famous courtesan, Yoshino Dayu (1606-1643). 

It has a choice of two screens that fit into the left side; a white shoji screen is used in winter and a bamboo reed screen in summer.  

The chawan at the left of my tenchaban-style table is inside a mage wappa (bentwood) kensui, for the Irekodate temae. The hishaku is hung on the peg, and the natsume (tea caddy) is displayed on the top shelf.  

Hisago-dana
The Hisago-dana (or Hyotan-dana), has a hyotan / gourd shape cutout. I love that the piece which is cut out serves as the shelf. This style was favored by Tantan-sai, 14th Urasenke Grand Tea Master (1893-1964).  The Asagao (morning glory) natsume looks refreshing on the  natural wood grain of the tana.

Both of these tana are held together with pegs and can be easily dis-assembled for storage in a flat box.