Aoyama-san from the Yufuku Gallery in Tokyo showed me an article in the Japanese “Nagomi” magazine, when I visited him last week. The magazine is all about tea and the May no.5 edition is about walking around Tokyo Galleries to look for objects to be used for a tea ceremony.

Aoyama-san introduces Japanese artists overseas and international artists to Japan. And as a tea master he looks around the world for items to be used for the tea ceremony. And that is when he acquired my Horsehair Vessel for use as a “Mizusashi”, a water jar, containing fresh water symbolizing purity and is touched only by the host of the ceremony. During the ceremony the tea master will take water out of this vessel with a scoop and pour it in the kettle heated by a fire.

The article and Aoyama-san. My Horsehair Mizusashi is on the stand.

Aoyama-san made a black lacquer lid “futa” for the mizusashi.