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1
Prepare each small item separately and fully — grilled, pickled, simmered, or dressed as the season and the item require — before any arrangement begins. Each preparation must be complete and at the correct serving temperature. The cook judges readiness item by item: each piece must be finished to its own standard, because the tray allows no correcting once composed.
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2
Select 2–8 items in total, always including one yama no mono and one umi no mono. Prefer an odd number of distinct item types. Reject any item that does not support the single seasonal idea chosen for this meal. This editing decision — what to include and what to refuse — is where the hassun lives or dies: a disconnected collection destroys the seasonal tableau that a well-chosen few items would have made.
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3
Set the 24 cm cedar or lacquer tray on the work surface. Place the largest or tallest item first to establish the compositional anchor. Arrange the remaining items around it, varying height and introducing colour contrast at each position. The cedar surface — its grain, pale ground, and faint fragrance — is itself a compositional element; leave portions of it visible. The arrangement is complete when the eye moves through the tray as a landscape, not a list.
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4
Place the single seasonal garnish — one stem, leaf, or blossom — last. It must name the season without ambiguity. The arrangement is ready when the garnish reads as inevitable rather than added.
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5
Bring the tray to the guest at the moment the first sake is poured. The host then names the season and explains each item's place in the seasonal logic. The hassun is the drinking course; the conversation it opens is part of the dish.