Spoon?

[Noriko]

I remember there being a post where someone posted a picture of what a medieval Japanese spoon looked like. I don't think they were used that often and this may have been Chinese in origin/early period but I can't remember.... I'm wondering because I'm planning on adding a more accurate spoon to my feast kit as opposed to the random one from my utensil drawer that I remember at the last minute (;

[solveig]

Noble Cousin!

Greetings from Solveig! Well, utensils which appear to be spoons show up in drawings of Japanese place settings. Here are some pictures of artifacts with similar appearance from an exhibition in Japan:


ilya-slow.jugem.jp/?eid=370

The text explains that these spoons are made out shells and bamboo. It also claims that spoons were in use in Japan before they were in use in Europe.

[Noriko]

Heh, finally a project so easy I can make it (take shell, put on bamboo)! On the other hand, I have a feeling this kind of utensil may be too fragile for the types of food I may be using it for (thick stews, scraping up the last bits of couscous and whatever other lumps of organic matter the barbarians are calling food these days...)
I'll look around to see what I can find.

[Please Delete]

Norie-hime,

First, I ran into this online:

www.hospitalityguild.com/History/history_of_the_spoon.htm

Second, here are some spoons from Japan, China, and Korea that all could be expected to have been found in Japan (as either native products or imports). You can click on the pictures to go to the sets they are a part of.

Unified Silla period:


Goryeo (not sure if the court still used the spoon in 12th century Japan):



China (12th-13th century):


And a modern replica of a 10th century spoon in Japan:


I thought I had at least one more, with an extant Japanese made spoon, but I cannot find it at the moment.


-Ii

[Noriko]

Neat. The distinguishing feature seems to be the long stem and shallow bowl, so I should be able to find something like that.

[Noriko]

Ooh. Neat find.


archaeology.jp/sites/2008/tomori.htm

I might be able to get away with one of those 'Chinese soup' type spoons as part of my kit. Finding a shell has turned out to be more difficult than I thought (though I've found several sources for scallop style shells.)

Also, courtesy of Lisa Dalby's website:

[Sō Haruko]

I ended up picking up some stainless steel bibimbap spoons at Marukai Value today, which look similar to the photos Ii-dono posted (although the material is obviously wrong). I hadn't read this thread in a while and somehow blanked on the posting of the shell spoons; there were a lot of nice ceramic spoons there that looked similar to the shell spoons. I might also acquire a ceramic spoon later, though I think it'd be a fun skill to learn to make your own spoon out of shells. The mussel and clam shells that wash up locally look like they might work, though they're not the same shape.