Japanese Tea Ceremony

Japanese Tea Ceremony - Japan is a very ceremonious country and keeping their ancestral traditions carefully. The tea ceremony is a long, slow and ritual with several stages, in which the guests and the host form a whole.

It is much more than a simple meeting for tea, we might think as foreigner, it is a set of movements, attitudes and repackaged around tea, which confer an aura of important spirituality.

The tea house

The garden and tea house, are both essential for a perfect Japanese tea ritual. At the beginning, you will stay for tea inside the main house, but you will also involved in separate room.

In Japan, these houses are called Sukiya, with few decorations stay to not distract attention. Commonly, this house consists of a driveway, roji; a waiting room, yoritsuki; another room for the preparations, mizu-ya; and the main room itself, cha-shitsu. All of this is located; usually surround a lush garden that called "tea gardens".

Stages of the Japanese tea ceremony

The tea ceremony can develop in several different ways, such as times, season, and the purpose. But in general, in shortened form, it consists of the following phases:

1. Kaiseki: The host serves a light meal

2. Naka-dachi: intermediate pause

3. Goza-iri: The main phase, the host serves the green tea, the koicha.

4. Usucha, the end of ceremony. In this stage, a lighter tea is served.

The complete ceremony usually lasts 4 hours, although sometimes it simplifies, going directly to the phase usucha.

How is the Japanese tea ceremony performed?

Guests gather in a waiting room, and then they go to the garden. In the garden, they wait until it reaches the host and greet them with a bow. Then, before they entering the main tea house, the guests have to wash their hands and mouth with water in a stack.

They enter the room, as a position of humility, respect and equality among all participants. There will be a niche, where there are placed a roll of calligraphy with a thought or a wise, and a fireplace or stove.

The host served light meals, called kaiseki. At the end, the host puts more charcoal in the stove and offers candy. After this, guests pass the garden to pause, naka-dachi, and wait in a bench. Later, the sound of a gong, will tell them that they must return to the tea room.

The place is now more enlightened, as they have withdrawn the reed blinds of the windows, and the roll of calligraphy has been replaced by a vase of flowers. The containers for tea are all placed in their proper place.

Next to the fire with the tea, it is the vessel with water and tea cup, chaired, with a cloth cover. At that time the host begins to use utensils as they will need them.

When, the process of thick tea (Koicha) was end. Guests will take the cup, one after another, and drink slowly, cleaning at the end of the edge with a damp cloth. This part of the ceremony is concluded by this.

In the last part you can chat since it is the less formal of all phase. Before the lighter tea, usucha, are served. When the session ended, the guests leave the place and the host just sits on his stay, enjoying the silence for a moment.

The path of tea and Zen culture

There are many types of tea, but most of all Japanese used the green tea, usually in powder called matcha.

The preparation and taking of the type of tea was transformed into the path of tea (chado), which is a way for learning and self-knowledge. Currently the form is practiced by the tea master Sen no Rikyu, who quoted 4 principles: harmony (wa) respect (kei), purity (sei), and tranquility, jaku.

Once you get the 3 first principles, wa, kei, and sei, you will find an inner peace, kaku.

Zen experience is the central point of the path of the tea. One of the reasons why there are no striking objects in the tea house is, it will only distracted the attention and the focus of the presentation, as I mentioned earlier. 

The experience of watching a tea ceremony is an opportunity to witness of a long process of learning, where tea is interspersed into a spiritual experience filled with meticulousness, serenity and peace til the end.