Month: June 2014

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Japanese tea ceremony – philosophy

My own experiences of the tea ceremony in Japan are remembered with calmness and serenity.  I remember beautifully sculpted gardens located within peaceful surroundings and a sense of tranquillity is very prominent.  This backs up what I’ve read about the tea ceremony from other sources.

The tea ceremony takes its philosophy from the Taoist idea of trying to find beauty in the world combined with the Zen Buddhist belief that the mundane and particular were of equal importance with the spiritual and universal. The ritual of tea making expressed the quest of greatness in the smallest details of life, and the formalised acts of graciousness and politeness that are integral to the ceremony are an outward form of an inner belief in the importance of peace and harmony.

Here is the ritual in full:

The walk through the garden to the tea room is the first stage of meditation and breaks the connection with the outside world. Guests are expected to approach silently in order of precedence – samurai warriors were obliged to leave their swords on a rack outside – before bending to enter the tea room through a low door, intended to imbue the guests with a sense of humility.

The guests then look at the ornaments and the flower arrangement and the tea caddy and kettle before taking their seats. This is something which I enjoyed greatly about Japan.  The time is taken to look at the small things, the detail and to appreciate these things.

The host then enters from the anteroom (where the tea utensils are washed and arranged), makes a formal greeting, which is returned by the head guest, and proceeds to make the tea.

The actual making of the tea is an interesting ritual to watch.  Each movement and action is carefully carried out and some actions are repeated several times, each with the same precision as the previous.  I found it fascinating to watch and the dedication required to carry this ceremony out with such detail was unlike anything I had witnessed before.  I felt that we, too often in my culture, just make do and don’t make time or concentrate on the details of things.  And here was an entire ceremony about just that!

Although tea is widely drunk throughout Japan and not always in the style of a rigid and and formal tea ceremony, there is still an emphasis on harmony, respect, purity and calm. Within its formality is the belief that rigidity and structure can in some senses be liberating and meditative – that freedom and beauty can be found within a strict form – which is at odds with the contemporary western notion that formalism can only restrict art.

As a Westerner looking at the ceremony and the philosophy surrounding it, I couldn’t help but feel that there is a beauty and peacefulness to the structured ritual and as the emphasis is on looking at the detail and finding the beauty in such a rigid ritual, this is exactly what you do.

 

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A history of tea – Japan

Continuing from the last article about China and the history of tea, it is understood that Japan’s history with tea is closely woven into the story of tea in China.

Under the Tang dynasty (618-906 AD), tea became firmly established as the national drink of China. It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch’a Ching.

It was shortly after this that tea was first introduced to Japan, by Japanese Buddhist monks who had travelled to China to study.

Lu Yu’s book was certainly influential in his homeland, China, but it was most avidly read in Japan. There it helped form the basis for the development of the Japanese Tea Ceremony (Cha-no-yu), along with the monks who brought back the ideas and experiences of tea from their time in China.

The tea ceremony became a ritual that raised the preparation and drinking of tea to an art form that still flourishes today.  The ceremony was based on the tea-drinking rituals of Zen Buddhist monks in China, who believed tea’s properties act as a stimulant and an aid to meditation. This started a revival in tea drinking, and Eisai (a Buddhist monk) went on to write the first Japanese book on tea, the Kitcha-Yojoki, or Book of Tea Sanitation.

The tea ceremony gradually became popular outside religious circles, and became much more widespread.  It was a sign of sophistication and elegance and was much more than just about making a hot drink.  The Taoist philosophy which underpins the ritual and ceremony is a fascinating read and something which I became interested in during my time in Japan and we’ll look at this in more depth in another article.

Tea quote #6

I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

~George Orwell, “A Nice Cup of Tea,” Evening Standard, 12 January 1946