Bamboo Tea Scoop with Inscribed Floating Clouds

Kobori Enshū

Early Edo Period (17^th century)

Donated by the Homma Family

Kobori Enshū (1579-1647) was a famed tea master, who learned the way of tea from Furuta Oribe and became tea instructor to Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu.

This bamboo scoop, with its deep grooves and beautifully painted scenery displayed from its joint to its upper section, is a piece where the Enshū’s idiosyncrasies can easily be seen. These include his method of the shaving of the tip, as well the crook in the joint.

This bamboo scoop was bestowed to the 5^th head of the Homma family, Kōki, by Uesugi Narinori, the 12^th lord of Yonezawa Domain, around the period of 1864-68.