As a symbol of the oldest, most formal, and most secret style of tea service, the daisu (台子) and its origin are among the major mysteries of tea ceremony history and scholarship. That classical narrative is that the original daisu was a Chinese tea shelf that was brought to Japan in the 1200s, forgotten about, and rediscovered by Murata Jukō in the late 1400s. Already, a good handful of tea scholars do not believe this tale (but challenging it will be a separate post).
Here I wish to provide my translation of a document which may well be the earliest mention of a daisu that matches our current understanding, that is a roughly 90cm (3ft) wide tea ceremony shelf with a bottom board and a top board supported by four corner pillars:
While the word daisu (台子・臺子・タイス) appears in historical papers before this document, the item referenced might not be our modern understanding, but rather a generic stand or table. Older references to chanoyu-dana (茶の湯棚) might point to a daisu or proto-daisu but it is difficult to be sure.
With that in mind, here is the excerpt in question, taken from the Ninagawa Family Documents in a 1523 entry titled Record Concerning Tea Ceremony Utensils (茶湯道具事書), with a colophon naming Sōju (Murata Jukō's sucessor) as the author. I've left many of the tea ceremony utensils and terminology in the original Japanese:
Daisu Excerpt from Record Concerning Tea Ceremony Utensils, by Sōju - 1523
Translation by David Lavecchia
Concerning the Dimensions of the Daisu :
Height: 2 shaku, 6 bu
Width: the fit the space to the inside of the tatami heri
Depth: 1 shaku, 4 sun, 3 bu
Board thickness: Top: 6 bu, Bottom: 1 sun 6 bu
Thickness of the Square Pillars: 6 bu, with a 1 bu facet
Bottom Board: The edge is beveled by 2 bu from the center, with the middle section rounded; the top board is finished in the same manner.
Pillar Placement: 4 bu inwards from the edge, the top is the same
4bu border around each pillar
Should be made to fit the room, be it a kyō-ma or inaka-ma.
[Intervening entries on dimensions for 2-panel screen and koita]
When using a daisu in either migi-kamae or hidari-kamae, a two-panel screen should be placed ahead of the daisu in the half-ken space next to the toko, and the daisu should be pulled out two sun from the front of the screen.
A dai-tenmoku and a chaire should be arranged on a naga-bon and placed together on the top shelf of the daisu. The dai-tenmoku should be on the left and the chaire on the right. When using a yōhō-bon, only the chaire should be placed, and it should be placed in the same location. If the tenmoku is suitable, it should be placed in the toko at jiku-waki or on the daisu, near the right corner. If the chawan is of inferior quality, it should be placed in the kutsurogi (mizuya/katte) and brought out only when the tea is to be prepared.
The utensils inside the daisu: the furo and kama should be on the left, the mizusashi on the right, and the shakutate should be placed in the middle, in a suitable position. The kensui should be placed a short distance in front of the shakutate. These are the four utensils placed together. The kakureka (futaoki) is placed between the daisu, the furo, and the pillar. If a flat kettle is used, the kakureka should be rearranged and placed on the tatami, and the lid should be placed there. The shin-nari kama should have a small lid; the lid should be placed directly on the futaoki without adjustment. The hishaku should be placed in the shakutate from the beginning. The hibashi should also be of good quality and placed alongside it.
The arrangement of these various utensils is very important. If even one of the utensils is of poor quality, it should not be included in the arrangement. The decoration of the daisu requires particular attention. This is all.
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