#Kuro Karatsu

[dognames]

Kuro Karatsu | "The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service"

[oceankat8]

Read a new Manga recently....

[starafterdeath]

[chanoyu-to-wa]

Best Wishes for the Holiday Season (12/24).

Dear Followers and Readers,

     This morning I decided to take a little break from working on the translations to do chanoyu -- in memory of all of you, as a heart-felt thank you for your support over the course of the past year.

     Please let me extend the best wishes to each of you, too, during this holiday season -- Chag Urim Sameach for those of you who began your Hanukkah celebration last Sunday; best wishes for a Merry Christmas for those who celebrate Christmas; and Peace, to those who will be commemorating the Buddha’s Day of Enlightenment on the 8th day of the Twelfth Lunar Month (that will be on January 2).

     Thank you for your time, and for following this blog.

Sincerely yours,

Daniel M. Burkus <daniel_burkus@yahoo.com>

The tori-awase:

Kakemono:  Ko-chū jitsu-getsu chō [壺中日月長], written by Kōrin o-shō [香林和尚], Daitoku-ji, Kyōto.

    The tsubo [壺], which means a (pottery) jar, is referring here to absolute samadhi.  Therefore, ko-chū [壺中] means to be in a state of absolute samadhi (in this kind of samadhi, one experiences space closing in until reality is reduced to the size of a point).  Jitsu-getsu [日月], sun-moon, refers to the human construct of days and months, in other words, to the idea of time itself.  Chō [長], then, means to extend, prolong.

    In the state of absolute samadhi, the mind (and so its perception of reality) is reduced to a single point.  Time, then, stretches out to infinity because the mind is living within this perpetual moment.  As a result, there is no past and no future:  there is only the eternal present.  This is the state where an eon passes in a moment, and a moment lasts for an infinite number of eons.

Kama:  a copy of the ha-gama [羽釜], designed by Jōō, that was owned and used as his principal kama by Rikyū -- for most of his adult life (from the time when he returned to Japan from his sojourn on the continent, until the time when he entered Hideyoshi’s service following the death of Nobunaga).

    On the right are the kind of bronze kan that Rikyū used with this kama; and also a pair of suki-gi [透き木] (stacked one on top of the other) -- little blocks of paulownia wood that support the kama by its hane as it rests on the ro-dan.  Because this kind of kama rests on the ro-dan, a gotoku is unnecessary.  Rikyū’s preference for this kama was probably inspired, at least in part, by the fact that it eliminates this piece of equipment (in those days, gotoku had to be specially ordered, and were custom-made for the kama that would be used on them, thus they were both expensive and took a long time to receive from the maker).

    The ro-buchi (not shown) was made from rough, distressed wood, painted with a thin coat of brownish tame-nuri, which I made many years ago.

Kōgō, habōki:  the kōgō, made of an early sort of white pottery, is shaped like a sleeping goose; while the habōki (a go-sun-hane [五寸羽] -- a habōki made from feathers 5-sun long) is made from the feathers of the striped fishing owl (shima-fukuro [縞梟 -- sometimes the name is written 嶋梟, which means “owl that dwells on islands”]).

Two views of the kōgō.  It is said that this kind of kōgō should always be used with the goose facing toward the viewer, as in the left photo.

Kashi-ki:  a low-quality Korean celadon with a design in underglaze iron oxide (Kōrai-seiji tetsu-e kashi-bachi [高麗青磁鐵繪菓子鉢]).

Mizusashi:  Chōsen-karatsu hitoe-guchi [朝鮮唐津一重口].  The lacquered lid is a variety of Ikkan-bari [一閑張] where a coating of thin paper is lacquered onto a wooden base.

   Chōsen-karatsu ware is so named because it (originally) was supposed to replicate the costly, imported Korean bun-cheong [분청 = 粉靑] pieces.  Bun-cheong ware was made from an iron-rich clay, coated internally and part way down the outside with kaolin (white slip), which was then glazed with a bluish or greenish, low-quality porcelain glaze (the intention being to imitate Chinese white porcelain in Korea, where porcelain clay was not known to exist, and where the wood-fired nobori-gama never reached the high temperatures necessary to fire porcelain).  The part of the piece coated with kaolin would appear whitish (though usually textured rather than glossy), while the glazed part that had not been covered by kaolin would appear dark brown.  Early Chōsen-karatsu pieces accurately replicate this effect (which was achieved by leaving a space between the white and the brown glazes, so that they would not flow together).  However, when the two glazes touch (originally this was accidental, but now is done by design), the white glaze flows into the brown glaze -- as seen in this mizusashi.  Since the Edo period, this effect has been much appreciated by chajin (despite the fact that the potters originally considered it a mistake).

Omo-chawan:  ō-ido chawan, “Gensō-ido” [大井戸茶碗 “玄宗井戸”].

    The dashi-bukusa was made from the cloth known as meibutsu-te moegi-ji sasa-zuru donsu [名物手萌黄地笹蔓緞子].

    Koicha was prepared in this chawan.

Kae-chawan:  kuro [黒].

    The kae-chawan was used for usucha, as well as for cleaning the chasen at the end of the temae.  This bowl is said to have been made by one of the early generations of Raku family potters.

Chaire, chashaku, shifuku:  Seto kin-ka-zan katatsuki [瀬戸金華山肩衝].

    The Kin-ka-zan kama produced chaire during the fifteenth century.

    The chashaku has accompanied the “Gensō-ido” chawan for several generations at least, and was specially made for it (the mouth of this chawan is rather large, making ordinary chashaku difficult to use).

    The shifuku is made of the striped Korean cloth known, in Japan, as Aoki-kantō [青木カントウ].

Koboshi, futaoki:  the koboshi is made of bronze, and is a copy of the one that Rikyū used on the daisu at the end of his life; the futaoki is made of iron.

[heroes-never-discourse]

In honor of Zombie Day, what do you think of Kuro Karatsu of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service?

who? | only know their name | loathe | ugh | overrated | indifferent | dead | alive | just okay | cute | badass | my baby | hot | want to marry | favorite

i actually have this on my to-read list but i unfortunately have not gotten there yet orz

Ask Meme

[kurosagixxxxxxdeliveryservice]

                  Fatal Frame: Keiko Makino and Kuro Karatsu

Makino and Karatsu both appear in the 2014 film Fatal Frame (Gekijōban Zero). The movie is based off of the novel written by Eiji Ōtsuka, in which these two also have cameos. 

[starafterdeath]

Karatsupalms 1 & 2

[edorazzi]

i was up till 5am reading kurosagi corpse delivery service from start to finish

[yokozumi]

KARATSU APPRECIATION POST

[chainsawcorazon]

my man did four years at a religious institution and he just like the rest of us: broke and unemployed.

[yokozumi]

leah introduced me to Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and i really like it

sobs i can't draw kere ellis very well