Buildings went up on the hill behind my studio, and a lot of trees came down. Of everything thrown out, the bark counted as the most useless of all.

But the years a tree has lived stay in its bark exactly as they were, and the lacquer keeps them there a while longer. Use it as a chaha (茶荷) for dry tea leaves, or as a rest for a spoon and fork — somewhere to set down the time of an ordinary day.