“Ichigo ichie” at a tea gathering, and choosing vessels for a modern chanoyu
Not whether it's right to place a kobukusa and a glass chawan in the same seat, but how to design the contrast between a vessel's texture and matcha's deep green as a visual cue to ease a guest's tension — from the field of modern cha-kaiseki.
Ichigo ichie is a phrase about the ethics of time — that the same gathering will never come again — but a modern tea gathering also calls for visual design that 'eases a first-time guest's tension.' Whether to set a contemporary artist's glass chawan atop a kobukusa is, beyond a school's approval, also a question of where the guest can rest their gaze.
The contrast between deep-green matcha and the rim of a transparent bowl — well before it photographs well on a smartphone — can make a guest catch their breath. That said, a vessel's coldness can sometimes rob the matcha of its warmth, so designing around season and water temperature is essential.