''Chakin'' (Japanese: 茶巾 "tea towel") is a small rectangular cloth used to wipe teabowls called ''

chawan A ''chawan'' (; literally "tea bowl") is a bowl used for preparing and drinking tea. Many types of ''chawan'' are used in East Asian tea ceremonies. The choice of their use depends upon many considerations. History The ''chawan'' originated in ...

''. It is a part of

Japanese tea utensils are the tools and utensils used in , the art of Japanese tea. Tea utensils can be divided into five major categories: * * * * * A wide range of utensils, known collectively as , is necessary for even the most basic tea ceremony. Genera ...

. It is also used in ''

Senchadō is a Japanese variant of ''chadō'' ("way of tea"). It involves the preparation and drinking of ''sencha'' green tea, especially the high grade ''gyokuro'' type. History Towards the end of the 17th century in the Edo period, Chinese mercha ...

''. White

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

is often used, or

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

cloth. The high-quality bleached hemp cloth ''Narazarashi'' (奈良晒) from

Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...

is historically especially esteemed. The size varies depending on the application and style, but it is often a

rectangle In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...

of about 1 ''

shaku Shaku may refer to: * Shaku (unit) * Shaku (ritual baton) * Buddhist surname In East Asian Buddhism, monks and nuns usually adopt a Buddhist surname and a Dharma name, which are combined in the surname-first East-Asian naming order. Since the 4th c ...

'' (尺) x 5 ''sun'' (寸) (30.3 x 15.2cm). The edges lengthwise have a narrow rolled

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

finished with

overlock An overlock is a kind of stitch that sews over the edge of one or two pieces of cloth for edging, hemming, or seaming. Usually an overlock sewing machine will cut the edges of the cloth as they are fed through (such machines being called ser ...

stitching. These two hems face opposite sides of the cloth. The ''chakin'' is folded in a specific manner and placed, when not used, into a small vessel or cylinder that is called ''

kintō ''Kintō'' (Japanese: 巾筒) is a small tube or vessel used to store a ''chakin'' cloth during the serving of tea. It is a part of Japanese tea utensils. The container is most often ceramic, but can also be made out of metal, lacquerware, or ca ...

'' (巾筒).

References

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External links

Tea ceremony lesson 7 - How to fold the white cloth chakin

How to fold Chakin linen cloth
Japanese tea utensils Textiles