Day 67: Cha-an

sencha with meridith and liz

Yesterday we went to Cha-an.

On the rim of the bowl, she had said, there was a stain from her mother's lipstick. Her mother had apparently told her that once the lipstick was there it would not go away, however hard she rubbed, and indeed since Kikuji had had the bowl he had washed without success at that especially dark spot on the rim. It was light brown, far from the color of lipstick; and yet there was a faint touch of red in it, not impossible to take for old, faded lipstick. It may have been the red of the Shino itself; or, since the forward side of the bowl had become fixed with use, a stain may have been left from the lips of owners before Mrs. Ota. Mrs. Ota, however, had probably used it most. It had been her everyday teacup.
- from A Thousand Cranes, Yasunari Kawabata