何とも粋です

Simple Sophistication

ご紹介しますのは、こちら！！！
Here is an interesting piece that I would like to introduce.



皆さん、何かお分かりでしょうか？

近代では花入として使われていますが、本来は油次【あぶらつぎ】（春日大社伝来）として使用されていました。
油差、油瓶【あぶらがめ】とも言われています。

油次とは、お寺や神社などでよくお見かけします灯籠、行灯などの油皿に補給する油を入れる容器のことです。

陶器や銅器のものが多いなか、こちらは竹で作られています！

何とも粋です…！

特に持ち手の部分！ここまで反り返っていますとポキッと折れてしまいそうですね….

I wonder how many of you out there recognize it. Now they tend to be used as flower vases for simple, tea-inspired displays, but originally this was used as a vessel for pouring oil (aburatusgi), and this particular piece comes from the Kasuga Shrine. They are also called abura sashi or abura game. These vessels were once used to replenish the oil in the lamps and lanterns that you often see when visiting shrines or temples. Ceramic and metallic vessels are far more common, but this one is made of bamboo, and is quite rare. The curvature of the handle is elegant, and causes wonder at how early craftsmen could have bent the branch back so far without breaking it.



竹は、とてもしなやかで強い素材なので昔は様々なところで活躍しておりました。
雨傘や建設現場の足場など…今では考えられないです！

ぜひ、直に現物を見て頂きたいと思います。
不思議と目が釘づけになります♪

As bamboo is quite a strong, yet pliable material, it has been used in a variety of ways since ancient times. It is almost unthinkable to use it in the production of umbrellas or scaffolding for construction sites in Japan today, but this was once the norm.

We hope that you will come by the gallery to see it for yourself. It has a strange way of captivating the eye....