Expo 2025 Osaka
Takayama Chasen
Developed in Takayama, Nara during the Muromachi era. A craft with over 500 years of tradition carefully preserved in each piece.
Each Chasen is hand-crafted with care from Takayama bamboo — And made with heart, for matcha lovers.
The character used in Takayama for chasen is not 筅 but 筌 — carrying the meaning that everything the bamboo gives is used. Chasen-making began in the Muromachi period, more than five hundred years ago, and the hand-craft is still carried on today in Takayama, in the hills of Ikoma, Nara. The Kubo family has worked here for seven generations; in the time of the fifth master, Kubo Isao, the workshop was renamed Kubo Komakichi Shoten, and the hand-work has continued unchanged ever since.
From a single stalk of hachiku to a finished whisk — all seven steps, from splitting to the final shaping, are carried out by the artisan's hand.
The making process →
