JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY

1. Japanese tea ceremony is called sado (茶道) or chanoyu (茶の湯). It usually

involves the preparation of powdered green tea known as matcha (抹茶), but
occasionally involves the preparation of green tea leaves. In such cases, it is called
senchado (煎茶道). Sado was strongly influenced by Zen (禅) Buddhism, and there is
an expression chazen ichimi (茶禅一味, also pronounced sazen ichimi) meaning that
tea ceremony and Zen are one and the same.

2. An informal tea ceremony gathering is called chakai (茶会). The tea is prepared
and drunk in bowls called matcha chawan (抹茶茶碗). The host uses a bamboo
whisk called chasen (茶筅) to mix matcha with hot water. Guests have the tea
together with a Japanese sweet called chagashi (茶菓子), and also enjoy admiring
the tea bowls and utensils. A more formal gathering is called chaji (茶事). At chaji,
guests have a multi-course kaiseki (懐石) meal and drink both thick tea, known as
koicha (濃茶), and thin tea, known as usucha (薄茶).

chakai matcha, tea bowl and chasen

3. Information about harvesting and preparing tea was first brought to Japan from
China in the Nara period (710-794), but tea culture did not develop much at this
time. Tea similar to today’s oolong tea (烏龍茶) was drunk in the Heian period (794-
1185), but people tended to think of tea as a medicine rather than a beverage.
4. In the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Myoan Eisai (明菴栄西, also pronounced
Yosai), the Buddhist priest who started the Rinzai school (臨済宗) of Zen Buddhism
in Japan, brought high-quality tea seeds back from China. The seeds were planted
in Kyushu and Uji, and harvesting and drinking tea became popular. Eisai wrote
the book Kissa Yojoki (喫茶養生記) about the benefits of drinking tea in 1214, and
tea ceremonies known as sarei (茶礼) began to be held at Zen monasteries.

5. In the Muromachi period (1336-1573), an entertainment called tocha (闘茶)

became popular. People drank various kinds of tea and tried to guess what type of
tea they were drinking from the taste. Around that time, gorgeous and expensive
tea utensils from China, known as karamono (唐物), became popular.

6. In the late Muromachi period, Murata Juko (村田珠光) started a new style of tea
ceremony known as wabicha (侘茶). Juko tried to simplify the tea ceremony using
everyday Japanese utensils from ordinary life. Wabicha was held in a small
four-and-a-half tatami (四畳半) room and used unglazed (素焼き) tea bowls of
Shigaraki ware (信楽焼) and Bizen ware (備前焼). The name wabicha comes from
the aesthetic concept of wabi (侘), which refers to the beauty of rough, simple and
imperfect or incomplete things.

7. In the Sengoku period (1467-1600), Takeno Joo (武野紹鴎), a tea master living in
Sakai (堺) near Osaka, further simplified Juko’s ideas of wabicha. He promoted the
use of even smaller teahouses and further incorporated the concepts of wabi and
sabi (寂), meaning a quiet, tranquil beauty or the beauty of old things, into the tea
ceremony.

8. Sen no Rikyu (千利休) was a disciple of Takeno Joo who perfected the style of
wabicha in the Azuchi Momoyama period (1573-1600). He is generally considered
the greatest Japanese tea master. Sen no Rikyu designed chashitsu (茶室), or
teahouses, of only two tatami mats, such as the Taian (待庵) teahouse at Myokian
(妙喜庵) temple. Rikyu referred to chashitsu as sukiya (数寄屋), and a new type of
architecture based on teahouse architecture, known as sukiyazukuri (数寄屋造り),
was widely used in houses, restaurants and inns during the Edo period (1603-1868).
Rikyu also helped to create a new, simple type of hand-shaped pottery which is now
known as Raku ware (楽焼). Rikyu was a tea master for both Oda Nobunaga (織田
信長) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉). He was very close to Hideyoshi, but they
later had a falling out and Rikyu was forced to commit suicide in 1591.

Taian teahouse Raku ware tea bowl

9. A famous saying associated with the tea ceremony is ichigo ichie (一期一会),
meaning “one chance in a lifetime.” In other words, each meeting or gathering is a
once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, so at a tea ceremony, both the host and guests should
appreciate the opportunity and make the most of it. Ichigo ichie has become a
popular proverb in Japanese and is used in a variety of situations to describe both
the importance and transience of human relations. The saying is thought to have
been devised by Sen no Rikyu, but was first written down by his disciple Yamanoue
Soji (山上宗二) in his work Yamanoue no Sojiki (山上宗二記). Yamanoue Soji was
sentenced to death by Hideyoshi one year before Rikyu.

sukiyazukuri style
10. Today, there are three schools of tea ceremony descended directly from Sen no
Rikyu: Omotesenke (表千家), Urasenke (裏千家) and Mushakojisenke (武者小路千家).
Together, these three schools are known as Sansenke (三千家). There are also many
other schools of tea ceremony.