TAKEN FOR GRANTED

I'll be the first person to admit that at times it is very easy to take things and people for granted and this is especially true of the amount of effort, skill and labor that goes in to the seemingly simplest of tasks or objects. Over the years I have used a chasen tea whisk to make tea and more often as a prop in a photograph but recently, thanks to a friend I was made aware of the huge diversity, artistry and effort that is necessary to create a whisk of quality. Watching a master at work it is immediately clear that the creation of such a piece is the culmination of those 10,000+ hours needed to allow the hand and eye to work in perfect unity doing what must seem like at times monotonous minutia but in the end this exacting attention to details creates not only an object of function but of art as well. Once you see one being made I doubt you will ever take such a humble object for granted ever again.

The attached Youtube video from THE MAKING series shows the making of powdered green tea and of an artisan creating a complicated and beautiful chasen.