chafyiTeaware
English

Shape Taiwan sources cited

Tea-storage jar

chá cāng

Start with the lid and the opening beneath it. A tea-storage jar holds leaves between uses; its shape belongs to the act of keeping tea, rather than pouring an infusion. Documented Taiwanese examples range from small containers taken out for tea to larger jars kept for storage.

On this page

A container before brewing#

In Wu De-liang’s 台灣茶器, 茶倉 (chá cāng) covers ceramic and metal containers for tea leaves. The photographs show lidded vessels without pouring spouts. On printed p. 218 / PDF p. 222, a small jar by 長弓 and a separate jar by 鄧丁壽 have different bodies and lid treatments. These are named examples, not a single standard profile. Book examples and terminology

For a first reading, follow the route of the dry leaf: the lid comes away, leaves pass through the opening, and the container is closed again. This is a different role from the Japanese chaire used for powdered thick tea; the two entries should not be treated as interchangeable names.

Different sizes, different roles#

The author distinguishes small containers carrying a little tea for an outing from larger vessels used to keep a stock of tea. That is a useful distinction of purpose, not a universal size boundary. A jar’s presence on a tea table does not, by itself, tell us how long tea was stored in it. Printed p. 216 / PDF p. 220

Four jars in one documented service#

The National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute records four tea jars within Kang Chia-liang’s 2016 墨金茶具組, accession 201701001. The catalogue lists the 普洱茶倉 at 25.2 × 25.2 × 31 cm and the 一兩小茶倉 at 6.3 × 6.3 × 5.6 cm. These are the source’s dimension triplets for two components of that set; their axes are not labelled in the retrieved record. Institutional inventory

The other jar labels include 一斤茶倉 and 小茶倉. “One jin” and “one liang” belong to the recorded names; they are not measurements of how much tea our examples hold. The set is separate from the jars photographed in the book. Its inventory supports a comparison of roles and scale, not a transfer of dimensions to those photographs.

Read the surface, then ask about the closure#

The book’s golden-looking jar by 吳金維 is captioned as wood-fired without applied glaze. That process information comes from the caption, not from its colour. The full-page photograph is printed p. 217 / PDF p. 221 and credits the collection 官韻. Photograph and caption

Return to the lid: a closed profile does not establish an airtight seal, and an attractive surface does not establish how tea will age inside. The present references do not provide closure tests or controlled storage comparisons. This entry therefore stays text-first while closer views are sought for a reliable drawing. For the reader, the useful first questions are what the container holds, how it opens, and which source identifies its material or intended use.

Sources#

  1. 吳德亮，《台灣茶器》，聯經，2012；2014年第五刷，ISBN 978-957-08-4000-1Chapter 18; printed pp. 216, 218 / PDF pp. 220, 222; unnumbered photographs. First edition 2012-05; scanned 5th printing 2014-05.
  2. 吳德亮，《台灣茶器》：吳金維茶倉Printed p. 217 / PDF p. 221, full-page unnumbered photograph of 吳金維’s jar; collection credit 官韻藏.
  3. 國立臺灣工藝研究發展中心：康嘉良《墨金茶具組》Accession 201701001, 墨金茶具組, 2016; component inventory and dimensions. Accessed 2026-11-07; record text checked, photographs not inspected.
Status and editorial notes sources cited

Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.