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.