There is a hierarchy among the tea ceremony utensils. The tea bowl and the tea caddy are the most important ones while the kensui (waste water container) and the ash container (haiki) have the lowest level of importance. The high level utensils are brought to the room first and held by two hands all the time.
Tea ceremony utensils are usually not used in daily life and only used for tea ceremony. In that sense, looking at the tea ceremony tools is like looking at a museum exhibition that showcases the tools developed centuries ago.
Most tea ceremony utensils are made out of wood (tea caddy) or bamboo (tea scoop, tea ladle, flower case.
Each tea bowl (chawan) is hand-made without using the wheel which is uncommon in pottery. That is why each chawan is unique. The more old and withered the bowl looks the more valuable it becomes. The raku chawan is made by rested kiln laid by the grandparents of the chawan maker 70 years ago.
There are 10 different Senke families that have been making the tea ceremony tools for over 300 years.
