Nagori is the theme of regret at a season's end, of which the nagori of the brazier in October is the representative case. The wabi quality that half a year of use has produced in the utensils is deliberately made the subject, and the passing season is cherished. Its substance is in placing feeling on using utensils to the end, rather than competing in newness.
Timing
The nagori of the brazier is most often held in October, ahead of the opening of the hearth. In a practice that divides the year broadly into hearth and brazier, it sits immediately before the changeover, and the mood of parting is the keynote of the sitting. It is also the period of preparing the mind for the jar-opening and the hearth-opening. In the twenty-four solar terms it falls between cold dew and frost descent.
Why it is distinctive
Nagori inverts the usual logic of a gathering. Rather than presenting utensils at their best, a host presents them worn — the one occasion where visible depletion is the point.
About this article
Edited by the operator of Chaen (a one-person operation) / Last updated:
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Term info
- Category
- Seasonal
Related terms
- Okashi (sweets)okashi
The sweets served with tea, divided into moist omogashi and dry higashi, and eaten before the tea arrives.
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Opening the sunken hearth in November — called the practitioner's new year — often held with the jar-opening.
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Breaking the seal on a jar of new tea aged over the summer and tasting the year's tea; the most formal occasion.
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The March period when the kettle hangs from the ceiling on a chain, its slight movement suggesting spring wind.