The craft of making a quality tea whisk starts with Raw bamboo, known as genchiku, cut and scraped down to remove the skin. Then, a process called hegi occurs, where the stripped bamboo is split, bent, and cut away to form the splines of the whisk. The splines are then further cut down into 160 equal tines in a step called kowari, and then dipped into hot water, thinned, and shaped during aji kezuri. Incredibly intricate chamfering called mentori further refines the splines so that the matcha tea doesn’t stick to them, before threading (shitaami and ueami) reinforces the whisk...