Set of Utensils for the Tea Ceremony 1810s Kubo Shunman 俊満 Japanese In this elegant still-life surimono by Shunman, accoutrements for a New Year’s tea ceremony are arrayed along with a branch of camellia, a flower that blooms at the end of winter and beginning of spring according to the lunar calendar. The poem reads:春の立けるひ茶の席上にて大ふくにたつる茶の湯の口きりや としの手前に春は来にけり古今仲成　Haru no tachikeru hi cha no sekijō niteŌbuku ni tatsuru chanoyu no kuchikiri ya toshi no temae niharu wa ki ni keriAt a tea gathering on the day spring arrives:Sipping auspicious teamade with New Year’s water, the tea ceremony begins— as spring arrives before the official start of the year. —Kokin no Nakanari (trans. by John T. Carpenter)The kyōka puns on tea-related terms such as ōbuku (New Year’s tea), chanoyu (tea ceremony), temae (formal tea preparation). Temae also serves as a pivot word here, meaning also “before the start of the year,” which alludes to the opening lines of the first poem of the Collection of Poems Ancien