FROM HERE TO THERE AND BACK: JAPANESE TEA BOXES

We've seen some pretty tea pots and tea cups—pretty enough to collect and keep on display in prominently located curio cabinets or shelves—and now we can add to them tea boxes (or chabako) from Japan. These are truly authentically Japanese, covered with authentic Japanese obi or other exquisite fabrics—authentic, of course!

So, what are these Japanese tea boxes? They are thin-walled wooden boxes of vastly varying sizes—from 1-kg size up to 60 kg—lined with sheets of tin to keep tea dry and fresh. With the arrival of Tupperware some decades ago, however, these wooden boxes are hardly ever used in today's Japanese households. They have become more a nostalgic item that these days seems to connect East with West in that it is the Westerner who is interested in this nostalgia. Many women are keen to learn how to cover them, to "upholster" them, thus making them into decorative items, from small boxes to keep on shelves or tables to foot stools or side tables. They also make excellent moving boxes. (Not as cheap as cardboard, but all included in the move, so why not?)

The flat boxes are nori boxes. (Nori is a seaweed.)

I became interested in—or more precisely, fascinated by if not obsessed with—these boxes when we lived in Tokyo. I realized that by using old Japanese obi for covering them, this combination made a perfect marriage by which to remember Japan. There was a store called "Chicago" where they sold funky second-hand clothing and used obis and kimonos. The store was located in Omotesando; our driver Wataraisan would take me there regularly. Aaah, what sweet memories!

Below are some examples of the ones, in various sizes, that I have upholstered. Most were given away as gifts—a very welcome gift to an expat living in Japan or Japanese friends.

The top left box is covered with a piece from an old Indian sari; the others are from obi.

This one may be my favorite, due to the simplicity of embroidery on the obi and the decorative studs that I embedded on the front.

Here is an example of one the larger ones I saw, a beautifully upholstered piece that makes an attractive trunk or a coffee table. It sits on a stand that was made specifically for arrangements like this... handmade, impressive.