茶道具の中には、「名物」と呼ばれて尊ばれるものがあります。名物の起源は、公家が楽器、武家が日本刀などに名前を付け、愛情をそそいだ歴史に遡ります。室町時代には、これが茶道具へと広がりました。永享6年（1434）、『満済准后日記』に「九重」という名前の茶壺が登場し、これが最初の名前の付いた茶道具と考えられています。以後、まず茶壺、茶入に名前が附けられ、やがて茶碗や花入にもひろがりました。

Some particularly admired tea utensils are called meibutsu. “Meibutsu” means “named thing” and every meibutsu has a special poetic name. The first meibutsu were not tea utensils, but musical instruments that were loved by courtiers, or swords loved by samurai.

In the 15^th century, people who loved tea culture adopted this refined tradition for tea utensils. The first tea utensil given a poetic name seems to have been a tea leaf jar called Kokonoe (nine fold), mentioned in 1434 in the Mansaijugô-nikki, the dairy of the head of Daigo-ji in Kyôto.

People gave “poetic names” to tea leaf jars first, and then the tradition of giving names spread to tea caddies for powdered tea, and later tea bowls and vases.