The fubuki-natsume has maki-e or scattered gold and silver on its surface suggesting snow in flight, and it is familiar as the thin-tea container that stands for a winter arrangement. It is the representative snow-themed decorated natsume, and its appearance at a winter sitting brings the season up at once.
Origins and character
Driving snow is a seasonal subject repeatedly treated in classical literature and painting, and lacquerers have developed it as a ground pattern, reading gold and silver powder as snowflakes. Fubuki-natsume appear frequently among the preferences of successive heads of the schools, combined with snow-ring, snow-on-bamboo, and winter-plum motifs.
In practice
It is a seasonal marker rather than a neutral container: using one outside winter would be read as an error rather than as a choice.
About this article
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Related terms
- Natsume (thin-tea container)natsume
The standard lacquered container for thin tea, named after the jujube fruit it resembles.
- Chaki (tea containers, collectively)chaki
The general term for vessels holding matcha, divided into thin-tea containers and thick-tea jars.
- Usuchaki (thin-tea containers, collectively)usuchaki
The general category of containers for thin tea, of which the natsume is the representative form.
- Yukibukiyukibuki
A thin-tea container with a wider mouth and fuller body, suited to large decorative surfaces.
- Nakatsugi (cylindrical thin-tea container)nakatsugi
A cylindrical container separating at the middle; an older form than the natsume.
- Nasu chaire (aubergine-shaped jar)nasu chaire
A rounded thick-tea jar swelling like an aubergine; softer in feeling than the shouldered form.
- Katatsuki chaire (shouldered thick-tea jar)katatsuki chaire
A thick-tea jar whose shoulder projects horizontally below the mouth; among the most highly ranked forms.