A Japanese cup of tea is more than is implied by the name for the ceremony - cha
no yu (hot water for tea). It is, in fact, a quiet interlude during which host
and guests strive for spiritual refreshment and harmony with the universe. The
Japanese Tea Ceremony captures all the elements of Japanese philosophy and
artistic beauty, and interweaves four principles - harmony (with people and
nature), respect (for others), purity (of heart and mind), and tranquility. It
grew from the custom of Zen Buddhist monks drinking tea from a single bronze
bowl in front of a statue of their founder, Budhidharma, during their act of
worship. Over the centuries, rituals gradually developed around the religious
significance and the use and appreciation of the utensils needed for preparing
and serving tea.
Today, the ceremony may be performed in a specially designed room in a private
house, in a tea house within a private garden, in a designated complex of rooms
in the workplace, or in a public tea house.
A full tea, or Chaji, involves a meal and the serving of two different types of
tea and can last for four hours, but shorter, simpler teas can be served to suit
individual occasions. Some alternative teas to use in these ceremonies include
Genmaicha, Kukicha and Hojicha (all very popular Japanese teas). Ceremonies are
held to honour special guests, to celebrate particular occasions such as the
blossoming of the cherry trees in Spring, to admire the full moon, or simply to
gather together a few friends.
For each occasion, the flowers, vase, wall hangings, and tea wares are chosen
carefully to suit the event, the time of year, and the desired atmosphere...
When the guests arrive, they are not greeted at the door by their host or
hostess, but are guided through a series of open doors to a waiting room. Here
they are served a small porcelain cup of hot water taken from a kettle in the
tearoom as a foretaste of the water to be used in the tea making. They then make
their way quietly and calmly into the garden and are met halfway at a gate by
the host or hostess, who opens the gate and silently greets them with a bow.
This gentle passage through the garden represents a breaking of ties with the
everyday world and allows a clarifying of the senses through the enjoyment of
the sweet sound of trickling water and birdsong, and the visual pleasure of
trees, plants, and blossoms. Nearby stands a stone lantern to light the path
when evening falls. The guests pause to cleanse their hands and mouth with water
from a stone basin of running water.
The entrance to the tea room is so low that everyone must stoop to go through -
a symbolic gesture of humility - and once inside, guests spend a few minutes
admiring the kettle, the scrolls decorating the walls, and the flowers. They
then kneel on tatami (rice straw) mats, sit back on their heels, and watch while
their host performs the ceremony of the lighting of the charcoal fire. A meal of
fine foods and saki is then served but although this can last for more than an
hour, it is not the main event but merely a preparation of the body for the tea
that is to come. After eating, the guests step back outside into the garden
while the tearoom is freshened ready for the tea brewing ceremony. They then
return inside and spend the next forty five minutes sharing a bowl of green tea
(usually upper-end teas, such as
Gyokuro,
Sencha,
or Matcha). A sweet cake made
with bean curd is served and is eaten with little wooden picks that each guest
has brought to the ceremony.
By this time, the fire has burnt low and the host or hostess performs a
different fire-lighting ceremony and waits, while conversation continues, for
the kettle to boil for a second time. Individual bowls of thin watery tea are
then prepared and served to each guest in turn, again accompanied by little
dainty sweets. Once this is over, final greetings are exchanged and everyone
leaves.
Because the Tea Ceremony involves an understanding and appreciation of a complex
combination of sensual and spiritual elements, the training to become a Tea
Master is long and demands complete commitment. A student can learn enough of
the basic movements and rituals to create a tea after three years or so of
dedicated study, but becoming a true Tea Master is a lifetime's work and the
training process is never really completed.
Because there are so many ways of creating a tea, and because the ceremony
involves almost every aspect of Japanese life - architecture, history, food,
craft, art - a student must bring to his or her training all the knowledge and
skills learned and developed in everyday life as well as human qualities such as
sensitivity, awareness, skills of communication.
Although the study is long and demanding, it is also fun and very rewarding...
And whatever style of tea a host or hostess creates, each tea occasion links the
people taking part to a continuous chain of 885 years of tea history.
