Hi Manuel. Thank you for the e-mail. Personally, I initially became involved with things Japanese through the martial arts, having trained in Aikido and Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu for more than 20 years. (I have written three books about the martial arts.) I lived in Japan in 1999 and attained a teaching certification in Tokyo to teach the language upon returning to the States. While in Japan with the Five College Center for East Asian Studies years later, I translated a Hiroshima survivor's testimony into English and then gave it to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. I also researched the self-mummified monks in northern Japan and wrote a book about them entitled Living Buddhas. A much older friend of mine, who is also involved in martial arts, first introduced me to tea bowls. He has an incredible collection, including some extremely rare bowls (like a Raku Chojiro bowl, several old Ido bowls, and more). Now that he is old, I am inheriting many of his bowls, so my collection keeps increasing. (I attached a couple pictures of my newest bowls.) For me, the study of chawan is a new thing, as I only began a few years ago, but he has been collecting for a lifetime, and he wants to put a book about Chawan together, hence the Chawan introduction on my website. However, publishers have not expressed an interest in such a book, since it obviously has a limited audience, so as of now, that book is not going to be completed. Hopefully, things will change in the next few years and a publisher will want it.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful message, and the website looks good!

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Ken

大徳寺(Daitoku-ji) is written in the front part of the paper, not in the bamboo case. This tea spoon was made by a monk named Hiromichi Hasegawa (長谷川寛道） of Daitoku-ji（大徳寺） in Kyoto, and was named 深山路, which means "a deep mountain path". The image is a narrow path in the deep mountains covered with huge trees, the leaves of which are thick green in spring and turn red and yellow in the autumn. In oneword, "natural beauty".Miyama road is usually written 美山, which also happens to be pronounced Miyama. So, it is confusing.　Kayabuki no sato is in 美山, which means "Beautiful mountains", while 深山manes "Deep mountains", but the general ideas are the same.   茶杓　　銘 深山路   深山路   Miyama road, is the best location for road cycling with his annual race every spring. From Kyoto is probably a Mountain retreat ...due to isolated remote mountains miyama no kayabuki no Sato is surrounded by calm Mountains during winter is gently illuminated by bamboo lights and handcraft lanterns. They produce a fantastic scenery in winter nights ...This tea spoon was made by a monk named Hiromichi Hasegawa (長谷川寛道） of Daitoku-ji（大徳寺） in Kyoto, and was named 深山路, which means "a deep mountain path". The image is a narrow path in the deep mountains covered with huge trees, the leaves of which are thick green in spring and turn red and yellow in the autumn. In one word, "natural beauty"