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Cha no Yu

The history of the tea ceremonies "Cha no Yu".

Today, all Japanese, young and old, men and women, drink green tea every day.

It is said that, "what is bitter for the mouth is sweet for the heart". Green tea is, in deed, very bitter. Therefore, the Japanese, who drink a lot of tea, have a "good heart".

About 1200 years ago, tea was also in Japan a rare and precious good. Only the monarchs had the right to drink tea. During this time, a small amount of tea was imported from China.

Originally, tea was cultivated on the bluffs of the Yang-Tse-Kiang in China. Trained apes, who wore small baskets on their backs, were used to harvest the tea leaves.

In the 15th century, Japanese priests of the Zen-Buddhism travelled to China to deepen their understanding of the Zen teachings. The Chinese priests, then, taught them about the tea drinking habits. Since the drinking of green tea kept the Zen priests awake during their asketic excercises, they brought with them some seeds upon their return to Japan. Subsequently, Uji, a suburb of the old imperial city of Kyoto, became a large high-quality tea cultivation area in Japan. In this seclusion, the monks sought to find themselves. For this, they had the teahouse.

 

 

rom the 14th century onwards, the custom of drinking tea spread also among the upper class. The parlour game Tocha was created where the guests were served tea from different region. They then had to allocate the tea to its respective cultivation area.

 

 

In the 16th century, Sen-no-Rikyu (1521-1591), Grand Master of the history of the tea ceremony, dictated the rules of this game. At the same time he introduced the spirit of "WABI", the spirit of quietness and calmness. Following these rules, the tea ceremony was more and more refined over the years. Today, it can be said that it influenced the Japanese art and culture to the same extent as the moral and behaviour. The manners or behaviour of the majority of the Japanese have been largely influenced by the Cha-no-Yu. For example, it is a wide-spread custom to teach young women the tea ceremony as a preparation for their wedding in order to provide them with the final subtleties and formal requirements.

The course of the tea ceremony "Chado"

Tocha developed towards being a social gathering of the upper-class. Its focus was the tea indulgence in a tranquil environment. During its course, art objects and handicrafts from China were admired. The samurai class defined the manners of daily life and also the procedure of tea-drinking gatherings. Rules were developed which had to be followed by the tea society.

The tea ceremony can be celebrated in different ways. This depends, on the one hand, on the school of which the host is a member and, on the other hand, on the occasion and time of year. However, its fundamental components are always the same.

Chado means "the tea journey". Hence, the tea ceremony equals a path towards quietness and meditation for the guests who come from their daily routines. Before the guests enter the for the tea ceremony prepared room, they walk through the garden and clean their mouths and hands with water from a stone basin (tsukubai). Doing this, they symbolically clean heart and soul and rid themselves off all impure thoughts. Afterwards, they proceed to the tea room. This is a small house, 9 sqm large, which was especially constructed for the tea ceremony and is called "senshintei" (cleaning of the soul and thoughts). It is decorated with a rollable drawing (Boku-seki) in the alcove (Tokonoma) of the wall where there is also a flower arrangement (chabana) placed. Since the tea is very bitter, small, sweet Japanese cakes are handed to the guests before drinking the tea.

The tea bowl is the focus of the tea ceremony and happily unites the guests and host spiritually. The guests are welcomed heartily and the social gathering is enjoyed without any disturbances from the outside world. The tea is also prepared before the eyes of the guests, which only reinforces the enjoyment of the wonderful taste of the tea. The best temperature for green tea is 48 degrees celsius.

At the same time, the tea ceremony facilitates the communication between all participants amongst each other in which the host or tea master are included; all class differences are nullified. Hence, the Cha-no-Yu society represents the model of an ideal society, if only for a short period of time.