November 16, 2010 in All about Japan, Sekaione Press by adminsekaione

All about Japan: Sado

THE CHA-NO-YU: TEA CEREMONY(???)

“When the tea is done with the water taken from the depths of the endless spirit, we have what we call chanoyu …for real” -Toyotomi Hideyoshi-

The first tea trees were brought from China to Japan in the 6th century. For long time exclusive pleasure of the elites, appreciated for its healing power,?tea will spread everywhere thanks to monk Eisai during the 12th century and in general thanks to Zen monasteries. Tea was used to help the monks not to fall asleep during the long meditation hours. The ritual aspect of the tea appeared gradually, particularly under the Ashikaga’s shogunate, until it became a real ceremony under the great daimyo (territorial lord) Toyotomi Hideyoshi, taking the name of cha-no-yu or sado. This form of artistic tea ceremony will start to be accessible by the masses during the Edo period, first by the upper class and later by everybody. Every year, the 1st of December, in the garden of the Kumano-jinja (a shrine in Kyoto) takes place a renowned tea ceremony festival.

Cha-no-yu means literally “tea water” but it is referred to the ceremony itself. This ceremony is also called sado or chado. The first “tea meeting” took place in chaya, “tea houses”, which were usually not far from big temples. This kind of meetings was called cha-yoriai by aristocracy and unkyaku-chakai by the commoners. Only by the 15th century someone came up with ideas to revolutionize the tea ceremony. The wabi, for example, the concept of simplicity and neglecting the appearances in order to focus on the real essence of things, marked the end of flashy luxurious tea meetings, typical of that time. Thanks to the work of some masters like Furuta Oribe(1544-1615), Kobori Enshu (1579-1647) and Katagiri Sekishu (1605-1673) the cha-no-yu turned into sado, a true spiritual discipline. In the same period the tea ceremony’s schools proliferated, each one with its own set of rules (Omote-senke-ryu, Edo-Senke-ryu, Ura-senke, Oribe-ryu, Enshu-ryu…). By the Edo period the rules of tea ceremony were so complex that they became a serious obstacle to its diffusion throughout every social class.

1. Slow progression and then waiting in the internal garden. After taking a small rest on a bench and after purifying themselves, the guests can enter the chashitsu (tea room).
2. Before passing through the door to the chashitsu (nijiriguchi) the guests have to squat and enter in this position.
3. The host honours the tokonoma, a alcove in the room containing a drawing (kakemono) and a flower composition (ikebana) then move close to the fire, while the guests get disposed in front of the tokonoma.
4. After having a light snack, the host sets up the fire and boils the water in the pot.
5. Guests are offered some confections (Japanese sweets are particularly refined), following some standard procedures.
6. Guests leave the room, clean their hands, purify themselves again, take some rest and enter again the chashitsu, occupying the same places as before, sitting seiza –style on the tatami (sitting on their heels).
7. The host prepares the tea for serving it to the guests (koicha-damae).
8. Every guest tastes the drink slowly (itadakikata), turning the bowl (chawan) in the hand in order to admire it. The guest rotates the chawan twice to avoid posing his/her lips on the most beautiful side (the one presented by the host), then admires the chawan after drinking the tea in 3 sips.
9. When each guest has finished enjoying the tea and the chawan, the tea equipment used to serve the tea is shown to them: the scoop (chashaku), the whisk (chasen) and the teapot (chaire). Usually the host also gives some information on the artisan who made them.
10. A light tea and a confection will be offered to the guests. Some of these confections are expressly made for the tea ceremony.
11. There is a thanks exchange when the guests leave, and the host bows out.

Generally it is not polite to talk during the ceremony; there should be just one person in charge of speaking for the group. It is absolutely imperative to take off the shoes before entering, be careful not to soil the tatamis. In cases it is hard to keep the seiza-style position for almost one hour (45min) (i.e. people who have articulation or blood flow problems) it is possible to request a small stood. Don’t stand up quickly, it is not polite. Remember that after being kneeling for almost one hour you could stagger when you stand up. During the formal ceremonies usually women wear an iromuji ??? (single-colored) or homongi ??? (characterized by patterns that flow over the shoulders) kimono. The bowl has to be kept in a particular way. The right hand has to sustain the bowl from the side while the left one’s palm holds it from the bottom.

Pavillon of Tea in the garden Shoyoen, Nikko. garden of the XIXe century  Edo style.

Where is the ceremony taken?

The chashitsu, the tea room, is usually an isolated pavilion (from 2 to 5 tatamis) in the middle of a specifically disposed garden (roji). The garden is meant for meditation and allows the guests to get rid of all the bad thoughts. This pavilion has a small (60 x 60 cm) door (nijiriguchi), forcing the guest to squat, and 2 rooms: the chaji where the guests are received and a small contiguous room to store the equipment for the ceremony. The chaya or chamise is (literally) the “tea house”, a small sort of kiosk which is a common destination in every tourist route. Chaya offers the chance to the traveler to rest while sipping some tea and eating some candies. There kind of kiosks are everywhere in Japan and don’t have to be mistaken with the chashitsu (the tea rooms). In a Japanese house, the chanoma is the room in which the guests are received and are offered some tea.

What kind of tea can be found in Japan?

The 3 most popular ones are: green tea, black tea and oolong tea. What make the difference between these 3 kinds of tea is the leaves treatment and the oxidation’s duration. In Japan, the most common kind of tea is the green one (the non oxidized one). Cultivation is concentrated in Kyushu and Shikoku islands. Traditionally the tea falls under 3 categories based on the period of harvesting, between May and June (gyokuro, shin-cha and sen-cha, and ban-cha). The first harvest takes place in May. From the young shoots comes the “shin-cha” (the new tea). The most prize leaves are collected between the 2nd and the 3rd week after the first harvest. From those leaves comes the gyokuro (sweet green tea, rich in chlorophyll).The harvest of the sen-cha (classic green tea representing the 75% of the Japanese production) takes place from May to June. The last one collected is the “ban-cha”, less rich in vitamins. The ban-cha can be combined with brown rice (genmai-cha). The mugi-cha, a barley-based tea, and the hoji-cha, a toasted tea, are very common as well. The tea used for the tea ceremony is called matcha, and it is a kind of green tea with powdered leaves. The matcha is rich in vitamin C, and if mixed with sparkling water gives a fizzy and bitter taste.

Which is the equipment necessary for the tea ceremony?

Even for the more humble tea ceremony a lot of tools are needed. A complete list of all of them could fill up hundreds of pages, and thousands of books on the matter exist. The following list wants to present the very fundamental ones:

• The chakin (??) a white and rectangular linen (or a hemp tissue) used for cleaning the bowl.
• The fukusa, (??) a squared cloth of silk used for the ritual cleaning of the natsume or cha-ire and for keeping the boiler hot. Sometimes the fukusa is used to wrap the tea tools when they are shown to the guests (for this purpose usually another kind of fukusa is used, kobukusa or “small fukusa”). They are thicker, and usually more coloured than regular fukusa. The kobukusa are usually kept in a small luggage or inside the kimono at the chest-level pocket.
• The hishaku, (??) a long bamboo dipper with a nodule at the center of the handle. It is used to transfer the water from and to the iron pot and the guest’s bowls.
• The tana (?) (literally “shelf”), is a general term that refers to various types of shelving in wood or bamboo used in the preparation of tea; each tana has its own name. The tana vary considerably in size, style, function and materials. They are placed in front of the host, and the tools are placed above or stored in the drawers and in the shelves enclosed. They are can be used in different ways in each ceremony.
• The bowl (chawan? ?) is probably the key element. Without it, the tea could not be served and could not be drunk. Bowls are available in a wide range of sizes and styles, and different styles are used for thick tea (koicha) and thin tea (usucha). Shallow bowls, which allow the rapid cooling of the drinking, are used in summer, and deep bowls are used in winter. The bowls are frequently named after creators or owners, or after a tea master. Some bowls, older than 400 years, are still used today, but only on special or peculiar occasions. The best bowls are hand-crafted and extremely expensive. Irregularities and imperfections are prized: they are often placed on the front. Broken bowls are meticulously repaired using a mixture of lacquer and other natural ingredients. Some gold powder is added to disguise the dark color of the lacquer and drawings are sometimes created by using this mixture. Bowls repaired in this way are mainly used in November, when the practitioners use the ro, or fireplace, again, as a celebration of the concept of wabi, or humble simplicity.
• The caddy, also known as chaki?? (natsume?, cha-ire???). The boxes come in two basic styles differ, the natsume and cha-ire, which vary in shapes, sizes and colors. The natsume is named after its resemblance to natsume fruit (the jujube). It is short with a slightly convex top and body that gradually narrows toward the base, and is usually made of wood or lacquer. The cha-ire is usually large, narrow (but the forms vary significantly) and the lid is made from ivory with a gold leaf underneath. The cha-ire is usually in ceramic and is put away in a decorated bag. The natsume and cha-ire are used in different ceremonies, as the first contains usucha and the latter contains koicha.
• The scoop (chashaku? ?). The scoop is carved from a single piece of bamboo with one nodule approximately at its center. They are used for scooping tea from the caddy to the bowl. Larger scoops are used to transfer tea from a box to the caddy in the mizuya (??) or preparation area. Different styles and colors are used in the different schools like Omotesenke and Urasenke.
• The whisk (Chasen? ?), is carved in a single piece of bamboo. There are thick and thin types to be used respectively with the thick and the thin teas. The old chasen are not simply discarded. Once a year, usually in May, they are taken to local temples and burned in a simple ceremony called chasen kuyo, which reflects the respect with which objects of the tea ceremony are treated.

All items require a careful maintenance. They are scrupulously cleaned before and after each use and before storage. Some of the components should be handled with gloved hands.