ホモテナシ

CQ82 really is the 灰 issue, covering types, history, and one instruction for 灰型. In 茶の湯, 5 types of ash are used.

For 風呂 and 炉, ashes are ideally made of oak (Quercus acutissima or serrata, though I'd really rather use the latter for storing whisky in it); but, kindly enough, they say that pine or any other wood are satisfactory 🤷‍♂️ Or, as 織部 did, you use ash from the Uji tea driers. Or, as Fabio does, get it from a Pizza restaurant.

• 風呂灰 also called silky ふくさ灰
• 炉灰, which is the same (but coarser) as above, but coloured with cloves and ばん茶
• フジ灰 (white wisteria ash)
• わら灰 (藁灰) (straw ash)
• ヒシ灰（菱灰） (red caltrop ash)

Sieved and washed, that means, put in a bucket, pour water on it, churn and skim off debris. Strain, dry in the sun; repeat; then finally put through a silk sieve (see video below).

☝️ Sieved with 80 holes per cm²

When 風呂 ends, ash should be sieved and stored in an air-tight container; and used over and over again until it becomes greenish-yellow.

The ashes for 炉, however, are not stored in an airtight container, but in a ceramic jar; and then in the summer it is treated: Washing, coarse sieving, and sprinkled while drying with clove or ばん茶.

☝️ I probably would've just washed it in clove juice, and then dried, but someone in Hurtebise 22 said it might grow mould in this way.

☝️ Sieved with 40 holes per cm²

Made burning from wisteria (フジ) bean pods; or dried cedar needles (then it's technically せん香灰, incense-stick ash). So clean, sometimes some ふくさ灰 is mixed in to make it more interesting.

Made by soaking straw, ideally wheat or rice, remove husk and soak in salt water for one hour. (About 70 grams salt per litre, to stiffen them up.) Half-dry the straw and bake in an almost airtight container until no smoke emerges any more. Open only when cooled down, otherwise they will ignite. ( See example.)

Used for the やつれ風呂 in October, by forming the ash with the 二もんじ, and putting it on top with tweezers, cutting each piece to size. Also used for the round がん炉 in the 水屋; and hand-warmers, in which case it is powdered or broken.

Reddish ash made by roasting the shells of caltrop nuts (Trapa japonica, Wassernuss in German, ヒシ in Japanese) and grinding them; used for charcoal for 香 and on the タバコ盆. Could be mixed with fresh, uncoloured ふくさ灰 to colour it a bit; but that'd be cheating.

Strictly not part of 茶の湯, but Christians use the ash from previous year's Palm Sunday on Ash Wednesday just before lent; it might be a cute idea to use it, too.

• Set the trivet so that it is equidistant from all walls.
• Then, according to some old text described in CQ82, the trivet is pulled forward half a centimetre. This is because the 釜 should be tilted forward slightly, and like this it is still equidistant from all the 風炉 walls.
• Then, move the trivet a bit to the left, and the brazier a bit to the right.
• Other texts go even further in arguing for seven flexions (風炉の七歪,  ひずみ) — the one in CQ82 is a bit confused, so I jumbled this list together with what I could find on the internets. However, this is not a topic that many people write about; so maybe it was just some 先生 who wanted to correct something, at all; or, something for the different schools to differentiate themselves.

1. Trivet half a centimetre to the front
2. Kettle a bit tilted to the front (so far, so good)
3. Kettle twisted towards the host
4. Brazier twisted towards the guest
5. Fireguard twisted a bit towards the guest (at least one person does that the opposite way)
6. Ashes go slightly down from left to right, and front to back
7. 柄杓 slightly towards the host

• CQ82 argues that 灰型 is one of the few areas in 茶の湯 where the host can express his creativity, when the rest of movements is fixed and 道具 made by someone else.
• Also, it gives away easily the degree of his accomplishment.
• 利休 came up with this idea when he was riding on the beach with 織部

There are 9 ash forms in 裏千家 today:

1. 二文字　押し切り（おしきり）
2. 二文字　書き上げ（かきあげ）
3. 丸灰　押し切り
4. 丸灰　書き上げ
5. 向　一文字　前谷　（むこ　まえたに）
6. 遠山（とおやま）一山（ひとつ）
7. 遠山　二山
8. 向山（むこう）
9. 鱗灰（うろこ）(only for highest 点前)

• Flat one is ひらば or こばん
• Pointy one is ささば (like bamboo)
• Round one is まるば. This you can bend more to your liking with a towel, if it's made from copper. If it's lacquered, the lacquer would crack.

☝️ Copper is the best

shin: mayu earthernware, takeno joo mayu buro or ooburo ( too large for the daisu) gyo: everything bronze and other shapes so: cast iron

ita shin: arame ita : black lacquer, horizontal rays, wider to front than far side ; use for black clay or bronze plain shin nuri

generally: grain should show towards the guest (on bottom shelf, middle

iron furo you use ceramic tile (usually oribe)

HAI finely sifted (fukusa bai) (and the japanese got specialised sieves for it, looking like a mehlsieb

80 holes to 1 cm^2

ro > 40 holes to 1 cm^2

ask at barbequee restaurants

haisaji hiraba (flat) (or koban) sasaba (like bamboo) maruba (round) (bend a lot)

copper is best
can be bend carefully in a towel (if it’s not lacquered)

very light brush to straighten the surface

this should suffice, but there are larger sets ogawadori konnichi sell helpers,

add a brush or feather and a bag of fujibai (when not using a iron one; adding more during high summer than at the beginning and end) a chopstick for writing the trigram

TOKIMURABURA (designed by Gengensai and smaller by Tantansai Tokiwa _> set, iron; green lacquer with red rim → all purpose practise buro seishikisumagora

furotobai to shin no gyo make nimonji oshikiri, grind ash with a little water, and put every fish scale down each one by one

warabai in october, also standard nimonji oshikiri; put them down one by one with tweezers and cut with very fine scissors

hosho paper, folded like for a kaishi for sweets

or just use newspaper like fabio

for non-iron furo you use a white mae gawara, for tetsu / iron use red

getting a new urushi furo, start with smaller fires to break it in otherwise it will crack

(today there are “clay furo” made of metal and lacquered, so that they are lighter)

toyama useful for larger furo

chose according to aesthetic considerations$

height for kirikake → its the gitcho

even though you can get people in japan to do haigta for you, at a chaji it is essential you do the haigata (and clean the toilet) yourself

do haigata the day before, but fujibai just before

toyama right in hongatte make one side of front line round (use the bent spoon) then form the mountain top then brush the rest (making sure there’s enough room for charcoal)

mukoyama in nakaoki

• video!

Palmer explains that the trigram ☵ is written because it not only represents water, but also north, thus establishing the host facing north.