It's the 飾 of 香合; but it's also a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. You could use it for a 香合 that you received from someone special (「ごゆいしょ。。。」); but also for a famed one (「ごでんらい。。。」). Because of that, it might be a suitable 手前 for 行の行 (Miya 24; see below).
Hiromi (pre-23), however, explained that it will be very tight to do with a 棚, and even if it were possible, it would be a pretty silly idea, since you want to spotlight the 香合 and not have any distractions. In 表千家, still, they do it on the 棚.
👋 Note the spelling of 手前: For charcoal, you write 「手前」, for tea 「点前」.
手前
You enter with
炭斗 and
灰器, start
手前 almost as always: Because the
香合 is not in the
炭斗, however, it's 羽・環・箸・蓋. (👉 For the normal
炭, it's: 羽・環・箸・
香合・蓋.)
The
釜 moves to the middle of the
畳, and the
環 live by its side (👉 For the normal
炭, the
釜 and
環 as a pair move to the middle of the
畳.)
Then, when the time comes to lay the incense, you go out with the
灰器, and come back with the
香合. Put it in front of the
炭斗, take it with both hands, put lid back on
盆, and lay incense with your bare hands as not to damage the
香合.
The guests ask for
拝見 once the
香合 is back on the
盆 (I presume so you don't get in the awkward situation where you need to bow while holding the precious
香合.) Take
盆, shift, turn in air, and put
盆 onto
環付 and shift back until the guests have fetched it.
🤓 This is the only situation in 子習 where you put something on 環付; which supports my idea that it can also be used for famed 香合!
台子
🫸 This is a conjecture of Miya and me.
Normally, you'd have the feather and
香合 on the
台子, but because the
香合 comes in separately, the feather looks a bit lonely on the
台子. Also, in 行の行, you'd already have the
茶入 on the
盆 waiting on it; so I think it is better to enter with the feather on the
炭斗.
Because you're using the
火箸 that are already on the
台子, the
環 rest against the charcoal.
Also, if you use a
切掛 風炉, you don't need a
灰器, which is nice. I guess you could sit directly in front of the
風炉, or walk in on the R side with the
炭斗 and then shift to the left. I prefer the first idea; but probably the second one is more correct (and how it's done on the table).
If it's
切掛, you also need to lower the
環 of the
風炉, beginning with the one on the guest's side.
Here, its 羽・箸・蓋:
-
Then touch with the fingertips the
畳 front of you and take out
火箸. This is fun, because you're sitting not directly in front of them! Put them in the
炭斗. (🤘 The
火箸 never touch the floor, so to re-hold after taking them out of the
炭斗 or after using them, use your hands!)
-
With the
切掛 風炉, you leave away the middle dusting. It's 4 times for the first feather and 3 times again (but starting with the back) before laying the incense. Because there's no
灰器, there are only 2 cleanings, so after the 2
nd, the feather flies back to the
炭斗.
Then leave to get the
盆. Miya suggested putting it in the space between
炭斗 and
釜; but I think it's nicer to put it directly in front of the
風炉 (which is also how
表千家 does it when they do it with the
棚).
At the end, take
火箸 with R from above, and re-hold with L (also from above). Two strokes on the top, one on the bottom. Then, put them back onto the
台子.
If there are
環 on the
風炉, now they are raised again, starting with the one on the guests side.
Only after this open the lid of the
釜.