Green matcha and a sweet to balance the bitter tea. |
Besides ikebana, another thing that I
wanted to learn more about while in Japan, but never did, was the formal,
traditional tea ceremony. Fortunately, I
was able to attend one or two while in Japan, but they simplified things for
me, since I was a foreigner. I realized
while I was there that most Japanese don't even know that much about the
ceremony. It's something that must be
studied – not just how to prepare and serve the tea, but how to be a guest at a
tea ceremony. There's a ritual for every
part of the ceremony, including entering and leaving the room, the seating of guests, making and
serving the tea, drinking the tea, and appreciating the tea, the bowl it is
served in, the decorative flower arrangement and hanging scroll in the room,
the garden outside the teahouse, and even the utensils used to make the
tea. Tea connoisseurs will tell you that you really
have to study for about ten years before you know what you're doing. Most of us
don't have time for that. As well, the
whole point of the tea ceremony is really about aesthetics, not just about
drinking tea.
As with Japanese
flower arranging, my best experiences happened in St. Paul, Minnesota, of all
places. The Como Conservatory, which is
attached to Como Park and Como Zoo, includes a real Japanese garden, created by
master gardeners from Japan, and a real teahouse, built by visiting Japanese
carpenters. There is a Tea Society in St. Paul, and people really do spend time
studying the tea ceremony. The
ceremonies are held each weekend in June, July and August, and they are so popular
that you have to make reservations months in advance in order to attend. The maximum number of guests who can fit into
the teahouse in St. Paul is about eight, I think, and an average number of guests
for a tea ceremony in Japan is five or six. Many times a ceremony is done for only two or three – or even only one guest.
The host ritually prepares the tea in front of her guests. |
So what happens at a Japanese tea ceremony?
Guests are invited to walk around the outer garden. They chat quietly among themselves, or just
enjoy the beauty of the garden. The
outer garden of a teahouse in Japan may be small, although the one in
St. Paul is quite large. Outer gardens
typically contain ornamental trees, shrubs, and a water element such as a
waterfall, pond or pool. If there is no
water element, there may be gravel that has been raked into a pattern to
symbolize waves in the ocean. The
gardens are deliberately kept "woodsy" and natural looking to allow
guests a smooth transition between the busy outer world and the tranquil
natural world. There are typically stone
lanterns along the path, which are lit at night.
Outer Japanese garden at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul, MN |
The sliding door to the teahouse is
only thirty-six inches high, and yes, you have to crawl in on your hands and
knees. This was a very important thing
in Japan, because at first, only people in the highest levels of society could
participate in a tea ceremony. The fact
that everyone had to enter on his or her knees was a powerful symbol of
equality in a society rigidly based on social order. Still, and the Japanese seem to see no
dichotomy in this, guests are ranked in order, and they enter the tea house in
that order. I have read that guests can
decide for themselves who will take the part of the chief guest, but at the
Como tea house, the host simply told us which order she wanted us to sit
in. The last guest to enter is responsible for
closing and latching the door.
Entrance to the teahouse |
There is a
preparation room adjoining the main tea room, and tea is generally prepared and
served by at least two people, a main host and an assistant. The implements for making tea are brought
from the preparation room and arranged
around the hearth where the water is being heated. In a ceremony in Japan, the host will have
even gone to the trouble of preparing his own charcoal for the fire! There are at least thirteen implements used
to make matcha, the kind of bitter tea used in the tea ceremony. Each of these implements is costly, and
considered to be an art object.
A guest enters the teahouse. |
The host passes the
tea bowl to the main guest, who bows before accepting it. The tea bowl will
have a design on one side, or at least one "interesting" side to
it. That side is presented facing the
guest. The guest raises the bowl and looks at the design, then rotates the bowl
slowly with his right hand while holding the bowl in the left hand. The guest will drink only three sips, then
wipe the rim of the bowl before passing it to the next guest.
When everyone has
tasted the tea, the host will make one more bowl of tea, this time a thinner
tea to rinse the palate. This thinner
tea is served to every guest in his own bowl, and there will be some sweets
offered to complement the bitter taste of the tea. In Japan, guests are not offered a zabuton
(cushion) to sit on until the weaker tea is served. This second bowl of tea is served in a bowl
that may be more decorative than the first bowl.
Tea served outdoors to many guests at once |
Because the Japanese
tea ceremony seems to have a big impact on Japanese culture, in general, I'm
going to break this subject up into several parts over the next few days. I'd like to talk a little more about teahouses, in particular, the tatami mats, the tokonoma, the hanging scrolls, and the
special ikebana flower arrangements created just for tea ceremonies. I want to talk a little about the history and philosophy
behind the tea ceremony, because the philosophy behind the ceremony permeates all experiences in Japan. :-)
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