Traditional craft
Takayama Chasen
高山茶筌
Bamboo matcha whisks from Takayama in Nara, the only place in Japan that makes them, each split by hand into up to 240 tines.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 10 May 1975
- Type
- Wood and bamboo
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 高山茶筌
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 生駒市
About 120 kinds of whisk
Takayama Chasen are the bamboo whisks used to whip matcha. There are about 120 kinds, varying in bamboo, shape and number of tines by tea school and by use: thin tea, thick tea, offerings, outdoor tea and travel tea boxes. How well the tines are shaved, a step called aji-kezuri, is said to subtly change the taste of the tea. They are made in Takayama in Ikoma, Nara, the only chasen production area in Japan.
From one bamboo tube
- Bamboo is cut to length and the top is split with a small knife into 60 to 240 tines, depending on the school and use.
- The tines are warmed in hot water and shaved from the inside so they grow thinner toward the tips.
- They are stroked with a spatula to curl them.
- Every other tine is chamfered, and the tines are woven together with cotton thread.
A request from Murata Juko
In the mid-Muromachi period, a son of the lord of Takayama made a whisk at the request of Murata Juko, the founder of the tea ceremony. The method became a secret of the lord's family, passed to only one heir in each generation, until it was later taught to sixteen principal retainers. It has been handed down ever since, and Takayama is now Japan's only home of the chasen.
Good to know
- Ask which whisk suits your tea: thin and thick tea use different tine counts.
- Takayama also makes whisks for frothing coffee.
Questions travellers ask
How many tines does a chasen have?
Between 60 and 240, depending on the tea school and use.
Where are chasen made?
Takayama in Ikoma, Nara is the only production area in Japan.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Kamenose: crossing the landslide heart of the Tatsuta Kodo
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Michinoku gold: where Japan's gold story began
- Mount Takao and Hachioji, the city of silk
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.