December 1, 2011 archive

Along with most Asian countries, Japan has a strong tea tradition and has even constructed elaborated ceremonies around the drinking of tea. A Japanese Tea Ceremony is considered an art form, and people will train for years to perfect it.

Green tea is the most popular form of tea in Japan, and is most common nowadays in the workplace during any form of meeting. There are still many who drink green tea at home, of course, but in recent times the Japanese have felt a stronger desire to emulate the western culture of drinking coffee in informal situations.

The Way of Tea:

Offered as extra-curricular activities from Junior High School and up, learning Tea Ceremony is considered sacred to most people. There are two types of tea served during tea ceremony – sencha or matcha. Matcha is the most traditional, a thick milky green tea with a distinctive taste. Sencha is the kind of green tea drank at home or on relaxed occasions, or during business negotiations. The bitterness of matcha is often counter-acted with a few delicate and slightly sweetened traditional Japanese biscuits or cakes.

Tea ceremony can be performed anywhere, but traditionally occurs within a bamboo or wooden tea house. Many schools and universities have a purpose built tea house on the grounds specifically for tea ceremony, and it will never be used for anything else. There are rules regarding the tea ceremony that you must follow if you participate. Firstly, wait outside the entrance of the garden until you are calm and ready to enter. When you enter the garden, the tea master will greet you, as well as bring fresh water for you to wash your hands. You then follow the tea master inside the tea house, where you will in a kneeling position called “seiza”. Japanese people are so used to sitting like this that they will be amazed if a foreigner can sit like that for longer than 10 minutes. Read more »

The Japanese tea ceremony is a unique Japanese cultural tradition, which began in the 15th century. It has evolved and changed over the centuries, and today there are many different styles and schools of tea in Japan. Despite the various styles and schools of tea, they all share the same overall philosophy, which has been shaped by its origins in Zen Buddhism.

The guiding philosophy of the Japanese tea ceremony rests on the principles:

‘Wa’- Harmony

‘Kei’- Respect

‘Sei’- Purity

‘Jaku’- Serenity

One of the key historical figures in the Japanese tea ceremony – Sen no Rikyu, is believed to have emphasized these principles in the development of the tea ceremony. Sen no Rikyu is credited with having developed all the steps in the tea ceremony and with turning it into a ritual which he passed down onto his students.
Sen no Rikyu emphasized the spirituality and the simplicity in the art of drinking green tea.

Japanese Tea Ceremony Today

Today the Japanese tea ceremony is still actively studied by students of all ages. There are tea ceremony clubs in high schools, cities and the countryside. Although the Japanese tea ceremony was restricted to only the wealthy in the past, today it is something everyone can take part in.
Apart from people studying the tea ceremony as an interest, they are also held to mark a special event (wedding) or time of the year (New Year). That is why, most Japanese people have
experienced the tea ceremony, most likely by being a guest at one.

The Setting

The Japanese Tea Ceremony usually takes place in a traditional Japanese tatami room. A traditional tea room has a raised alcove at the front of the room, which is simply and elegantly decorated with a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement.
The hanging scroll usually has a simple poem written in Japanese calligraphy, which has been carefully chosen by the host to set the mood and atmosphere of the tea ceremony. Read more »