The Japanese tea ceremony

Tea arrived in Japan from China in the 8th century, but the real master of the Japanese tea ceremony was Sen no Rikyū, born in 1522 in akasaka prefecture, which elevated the tea and the ritual connected to it true and own art form. Harmony, respect, purity and tranquility: these are the four principles on which, according to the Maestro, the tea ceremony was founded and is still based today.

The ritual of the Japanese tea ceremony takes place in the famous tea room, the cha shitsu, which can be found inside a house or be in an area separate from the house or even in a pavilion made specifically for the occasion. The tea room was conceived and created by Zen masters, as a place of contemplation and meditation, a simple, linear, essential and clean environment in which the only architectural elements are wood and straw.

Purity and refinement are the guiding elements of the ritual of the Japanese tea ceremony. The essentiality and absence, the emptiness and the container, rather than the content, are fundamental and representative aspects, which exert a beneficial action on thought and heart, freeing mind and spirit from the daily anxieties and the materiality of earthly life . In addition to the tea room, there is a small utility room where tea is prepared and a porch where guests are made to wait, next to the garden. These too are part of the whole ritual.

One of the most curious elements of the room is the tokonoma, a small niche where a very simple flower arrangement is placed, called chabana (tea flowers), and where hand-written rolls of paper are hung. The seat next to the tokonoma is the most important during the ceremony and is reserved for the head of the family, or for the guest.

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The Japanese tea ceremony begins with sobriety. Whoever prepares tea wears clothes in soft colors, at the foot he carries the typical Japanese sandals, the tabi, he holds a fan in his hand and the white paper handkerchiefs folded in the lapel of the dress. Even the garden is an essential part of the Japanese tea ceremony, so well cared to make it look like a natural masterpiece, lacking as it is in artifice or overflow, it consists of a simple stream, lanterns, moss, plants and local flowers left to grow spontaneously. Once the guest crosses the threshold of the garden and bows to enter from the low door that leads to the tea room, he is already immersed in a new dimension

The Japanese tea ceremony begins with the placement of various utensils and the preparation of Mat-Cha green tea in the cup. Each participant, sitting on the mat, begins to consume a small cake. Only afterwards is the chawan, the cup of tea, placed in front of him. The guest takes the cup in his hands and rotates it to expose the shōmen, or the most beautiful part of it, towards the landlord, expressing his liking. Then he cleans the rim of the cup and puts it away. The cup is taken from the householder and taken away . The ceremony thus proceeds with the other guests, until, once everyone has drunk, the first guest utters the ritual phrase according to which permission is being granted to examine the utensils: the tea container and the bamboo spoon . Permission is granted and other guests can also observe the tools. Last the cup is observed and information is asked about the master who created it, the era and style, intoning a haiku or short poem in honor of it, almost like giving it a name. The ceremony ends with the head of the family bowing deeply, so they do the guests with him, and closes the sliding door.