A tea caddy for storing weak green powdered tea. Also called *usuchaki 薄茶器. The name natsume derived from the shape, which is similar to a Chinese date, natsume or jujube. The origin of this type of tea caddy is attributed to Haneda Gorō 羽田五郎 who lived near the Hōkaimon 法界門 at the temple Myōkakuji 妙覚寺 in Kyoto, around the time of the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimasa 足利義政 (1433-90) in the Muromachi period, when the drinking of tea ceremonial was in its earliest stage.
Natsume have various sizes and shapes: There are long, flat natsume, chamferred ones; styles favored by Sen no Rikyū 千利休 (1522-91), sen rikyūgata 千利休形 called kawatarō 河太郎; shirifukurami 尻膨 with large bottoms; the so-called tea-pail type, chaoke 茶桶; those with a bulge in the middle dōbari 胴張; and those with a red top kōaka 甲赤. The lid may be overlapping okibuta 置蓋 or in the styles of a medicine box inrō-zukuri 印籠造.
Natsume may be made of wood and dry lacquer *kanshitsu 乾漆, bamboo, lacquer over layers of paper ikkanbari 一閑張, ceramic, metal, or even black quartz. Some natsume are coated with black wax kurorōnuri 黒蝋塗, some with a type of red lacquer, shutame 朱溜, some with lacquer over various colors shunkei-nuri 春慶塗, or a rubbed lacquer coating, suriurushi 摺漆. For decoration gold or silver powder was sometimes sprinkled over pear skin lacquer nashiji 梨地, and sometimes oil paint was used. Carved lacquer horiurushi 彫漆 lacquer and shell inlaid *raden 螺鈿 was also used.
