What is Tea Ceremony?

I realized that while I may be wrapped up in my own tea ceremony world, many visitors to my page may have no clue what I am ranting about. Many of you may be interested in Japanese culture and would like to learn more so I did a search and what follows below is an explanation of the art of tea ceremony.

At its most basic, tea ceremony or chanoyu is the Japanese art of preparing and serving powdered green tea (matcha) to guests. It is a multifaceted traditional activity strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism and has a ceremonial quality to it. Because of its base in Japanese traditional culture, the host — male or female — almost always wears a kimono. Proper attire for guests is kimono or subdued formal wear.

The following excerpt was taken from the page http://web-japan.org and has been edited. It offers and excellent introduction and offers an easy to understand explantion of Tea Ceremony

The tea ceremony (chanoyu), which is also known as the Way of Tea (chado or sado), is the ritualized preparation and serving of powdered green tea in the presence of guests. A full-length formal tea ceremony involves a meal (chakaiseki) and two servings of tea (koicha and usucha) and lasts approximately four hours, during which the host engages his whole being in the creation of an occasion designed to bring aesthetic, intellectual, and physical enjoyment and peace of mind to the guests.

To achieve this, the tea host or hostess may spend decades mastering not only the measured procedures for serving tea in front of guests, but also learning to appreciate art, crafts, poetry, and calligraphy; learning to arrange flowers, cook, and care for a garden; and at the same time instilling in himself or herself grace, selflessness, and attentiveness to the needs of others.

The ceremony is equally designed to humble participants by focusing attention both on the profound beauty of the simplest aspects of nature—such as light, the sound of water, and the glow of a charcoal fire (all emphasized in the simple rustic setting of the tea room).

Conversation in the tearoom is focused on the implements and utensils used in the ceremony. The guests will not engage in small talk or gossip, but limit their conversation to a discussion of the origin of utensils and praise for the beauty of natural manifestations.

The objective of a tea gathering is that of Zen Buddhism—to live in this moment—and the entire ritual is designed to focus the senses so that one is totally involved in the occasion and not distracted by mundane thoughts. Through tea, recognition is given that every human encounter is a singular occasion which can, and will, never recur again exactly. Thus every aspect of tea must be savored for what it gives the participants.

People may wonder if a full-length formal tea ceremony is something that Japanese do at home regularly for relaxation. This is not the case. It is rare in Japan now that a person has the luxury of owning a tea house or the motivation to entertain in one. Entertaining with the tea ritual has always been, with the exception of the Buddhist priesthood, the privilege of the elite.

These days there are many people who study tea ceremony in Japan in one of the three main styles (Urasenke, Omotesenke and Mushanokōjisenke). Every week, all year round, they go to their teacher for two hours at a time, sharing their class with three or four other students. They take turn preparing tea and playing the role of the host and guest. Then they go home and come again the following week to do the same, many for their whole lives.

In the process, the tea student learns not only how to make tea, but also how to make the perfect charcoal fire; how to look after utensils and prepare the powdered tea; how to appreciate art, poetry, pottery, calligraphy, lacquerware, wood craftsmanship, and gardens; and how to recognize all the wild flowers and in which season they bloom. They learn how to deport themselves in a tatami (reed mat) room and to always think of others first.

The teacher discourages learning from a book and makes sure all movements are learned with the body and not with the brain. The traditional arts—tea, calligraphy, flower arranging, and the martial arts—were all originally taught without texts or manuals. The goal is not the intellectual grasp of a subject, but the attainment of presence of mind.

Each week there are slight variations in the routine, dictated by the utensils and the season, to guard against students becoming complacent in their practice. The student is reminded that the Way of Tea is not a course of study that has to be finished, but life itself. There are frequent opportunities for students to attend tea gatherings, but it does not matter if the student never goes to a formal four-hour chaji—the culmination of all they have learned—because it is the process of learning that counts: the tiny accumulation of knowledge, the gradual fine-tuning of the sensibilities, and the small but satisfying improvements in the ability to cope gracefully with the little dramas of the everyday world. The power of the tea ritual lies in the unfurling of self-realization.

So dear readers I hope you found this introduction useful. If this post has inspired at least one person to study tea I would be elated.
If you have ever attended a tea ceremony, or had Japanese matcha please drop me a line with your impressions.

Thank you for visiting, reading and learning and please don’t forget to check out my Ebay store called Japanese Elegance.

http://stores.ebay.com/Japanese-Elegance

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Sayonara