Takayama Chasen is made by carefully performing all the following eight steps by hand.
1."Haratake"
Cut bamboo that has been aged for 2 to 3 years to the required size. Three types of raw materials are often used: white bamboo, black bamboo, and soot bamboo.
2."Katagi"
The first step to make the tips. Peel the epidermis of the tip from the upper half of the node. Then divide the part that will be the tip with a kitchen knife. There are differences depending on the thickness of the bamboo, but the standard is at least 12 - 24 cuts.
3."Kowari"
The process of breaking the part divided by the piece of wood into smaller pieces. When splitting, the sizes are split alternately.
4. "Aji Kezuri"
The process of making the most difficult and important tips that affect the taste of matcha. Carefully scrape the tips so that they are thinner than the roots. After that, the chasen gets squeezed so that it becomes round on the body to make it into shape.
5. "Mentori"
The process of scraping both corners of the chasen one by one and removing the corners. Eliminating the corners makes it difficult for the tea to adhere.
6. "First part / second part"
The process of performing the upper knitting by double threading to firmly fix the root of the lower knitted rising ear.
7. "Jyohen/ Gehen"
The process of determining the size of the chasen and adjusting the height and spacing of the falling ears and roots.
8. "Shiage"
The final process to correct the disorder of the tip and adjust the shape, height and interval to the tip.
