The first part of the story is from an essay I wrote in Entropy Magazine called Wind in the Pines. More on the bowl in my essay at ELECTRUM MAGAZINE
Why The Past Matters. My essay is called: The Korean Teabowl and Christopher Hitchens
目には青葉山ほととぎす初鰹
山口 素堂（やまぐち そどう、寛永19年5月5日（1642年6月1日） - 享保元年8月15日（1716年9月30日））は、江戸時代前期の俳人である。本名は信章。
「目には初夏の青葉がさわやかに映り、耳にはホトトギスのさわやかな声が届き、口では初物の鰹を味わえる素晴らしい夏だ」
May is the "good month." As the haiku by Yamaguchi Sodo suggests above: May is "green leaves to see, the cuckoo to hear and early bonito to taste."
The season of sho lasts from May through October
The "modern translation" of this Edo period poem includes this final point, "it is the glorious time of summer." This last bit was not something that needed to be stated as it was universally something understood. And why summer? Because according to the old calendar, from around the first week of the fifth month, we entered the time of summer.
Shoburo / 初風炉 / first use of the portable brazier in the year (may)
The first May tea is an important occasion as the ro has been put away there is fresh tatami in the tea room. Usually the windows and screen doors are left wide open to let the beautiful season inside-- all to celebrate the coming of summer and the beginning of the furo season. It is said that tea people love the ro and the furo equally. My tea teacher often would start displaying her arrangements using summery grasses in baskets. It is a time of greenery, u no hana, wisteria, azalea, irisis--and peonies.
Events of the Month
Shoburo / 初風炉 / first use of the portable brazier in the year (may)
Aoi Matsuri (Kyoto)
Ukai Biraki (Gifu)
Tea Sweets for the Fifth Month
Entering teahouse 小間への席入り 蹲の清め方 にじり口の入り方 掛け軸の拝見まで【裏千家 茶道】
茶道 - Japanese Tea Ceremony -
My tea friends were forever teasing me because of my last name.
Ogasawara is the name of a famous school of etiquette.
So each time I did something clumsy
--something that happened many, many times--
they always wondered how somehow of the Ogasawara clan could be so clueless!
++
Wakakusa
(若草)
This Japanese wagashi is produced in Matsue, and it consists of a rectangular rice cake that is dusted with a green-tinted combination of sugar and rice powder. The cakes are soft and light, and the rice used in its production is still milled the traditional way.
Although it is said that wakakusa has an ancient origin, its modern revival happened in the 1890s. The treat is traditionally served as an accompaniment to green tea, and it is usually associated with springtime.
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