Japanese Tea Ceremony
The tea ceremony is an indoor traditional art. This kind of tea is an artistic ceremony held at a specific time in a special place that is completely isolated from daily life. It must go through extremely cumbersome procedures. The procedures can only be completed using specific techniques.
In addition to paying attention to special techniques, tea ceremony also emphasizes the connection between people. The tea in the tea ceremony is not personal tea, but collective and shared by everyone. The core of the tea ceremony is the gathering of tea. Through tea communication, all participants in the tea party can get rid of the constraints of real society and make the relationship between people become harmonious from the bottom of their hearts.
Japanese tea ceremony includes a kind of spiritualism, which emphasizes purity, tranquility, harmony and silence. In the history of tea ceremony, there are many people with the same name who have spent their whole lives pursuing the path of the heart. The tea ceremony is based on isolation. Therefore, it is natural for it to pursue a unique spiritual state as its goal, the so-called Taoism.
At the same time, the tea ceremony is also interesting and has a recreational nature. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that some people participate in the tea ceremony for entertainment purposes. In fact, the pursuit of truth and the interest of tea ceremony are not contradictory, they coexist in tea ceremony at the same time.
Camellia is an important component of the tea ceremony. Generally speaking, three conditions must be met before a tea party can be held. First of all, the tea party is a gathering of people. While drinking tea, people openly express their feelings in order to achieve unity of mind. The feeling of the conversation often determines the success or failure of the tea party. Furthermore, tea parties are very particular about matching. Through the reasonable matching of tea ceremony utensils and tea sets, the host and guests place themselves in a coordinated tea room space. Finally, the specific etiquette of tea ceremony. The host's skillful and deft movements when receiving guests often bring the interest of the tea party to a climax. Every cup of tea contains the owner's thoughts.
The room where the tea party is held is called the tea room, also called the main seat, tea banquet or just the banquet. The tea room is equipped with niches and a floor stove. The location of the hearth determines how the indoor mats are laid. Generally speaking, guests sit on the left hand side of the operator (host), which is called a convenient seat. The guest sits on the right hand side of the operator, which is called the backhand seat. Guests enter the teahouse through a unique small exit. Legend has it that this small exit was designed by Sen no Rikyu, the founder of the tea ceremony, to imitate the windows on the Yodogawa boats.
According to the etiquette of the tea ceremony, the host takes the tea set at the prescribed position according to the rules and makes tea in a certain order. In order for the tea party to be successful, the etiquette performance of the tea ceremony is crucial. It is the tea ceremony etiquette that turns the ordinary daily life habit of drinking tea into an art and becomes the tea ceremony. There are three types of etiquette: charcoal etiquette, strong tea etiquette, and light tea etiquette. The difference in etiquette is mainly based on the different procedures for deciding whether to use an earth stove (indoor) or a tea stove (outdoor) and whether to use a shelf. The operation procedures, which may seem complex and boring on the surface, are arranged as scientifically as possible in terms of positions, movements, sequences, and tools to avoid waste in all aspects.
The process of preparing charcoal for a tea stove or tea stove is called the charcoal ritual. Both the first seat and the second seat have the first charcoal etiquette and the last charcoal etiquette respectively. The procedures of the charcoal ritual include preparing charcoal burning tools, cleaning the floor stove (or tea stove), adjusting the heat, removing charcoal ash, adding charcoal, and lighting incense.
Strong tea is the most solemn ceremony in the tea ceremony. Mainly you must wear a black kimono with white patterns. During the ceremony, there is almost no dialogue between the host and the guests. Learning the tea ceremony generally starts with learning the flexible tea and thin tea. Thin tea is the most basic etiquette of tea ceremony. In addition to thin tea and strong tea, due to different schools, the preparation of utensils, the use of round bamboo brushes (to stir the tea powder to make it foam), the folding method of small silk cloth, the handling of the tea ladle, and the method of pounding the tea leaves are all different. Not quite the same.
In the art of tea ceremony, the artistic appreciation of utensils accounts for a large proportion. The expression "meeting the vessel" itself proves this point. Tea ceremony utensils can be divided into four categories: utensils for reception; utensils for tea banquets; utensils for courtyard use; and utensils for tea washing. Among them, reception utensils and tea banquet utensils are utensils that meet guests directly, that is, appreciation items. Utensils for use in the hospital and tea washing utensils are consumer goods. Usually the former is used as a tea set, and the latter is used as a miscellaneous utensil. Below is a brief introduction to the types and uses of these appliances.
Reception equipment includes scroll characters, scroll paintings, smoking utensils, and tea bowls hanging in the niches. Tea party utensils include utensils for decorating niches. Utensils related to charcoal etiquette, tea ceremony etiquette utensils. Kaiseki tableware.
Tea party utensils include niche decorative utensils, hanging scrolls, and vases.
The charcoal ritual equipment includes: cauldron, tea stove, incense box, ash container, and charcoal bucket.
Tea ceremony utensils include shelves, water bowls, tea bowls, and tea cans. Tea utensils, tea ladles, lids, and jianshui (containers that hold water that is not needed after rinsing the tea bowls. Most of them are pottery products, and some are round boxes made of thin wood chips).
The utensils of the kaiseki meal include orikiki (a container made of thin wood chips to hold rice and miso soup), bowls (rice bowls, miso soup bowls, tea bowls), and fufu (a small ceramic bowl, used to hold food), Bacun (a 24 cm square cedar wood vessel. Used to hold wine and food), grilled food bowl (a slightly larger ceramic vessel), Wine vessel.
Utensils in the courtyard include straw mats, round pedestals, ladles with handles in the courtyard, hand-bucket water houses (tea washers in the corner of the tea room), and utensils including gongs, kettles, tea towel basins, and round bamboo brushes (for mixing tea leaves). lathering brush), tea towel, ladle, etc.
Japanese tea ceremony is divided into several schools. They are centered on their respective family members (heads of the family), so that their own traditions can be passed down. Iemoto (the head of the family) has many disciples. After the stage of apprenticeship and art, Iemoto (the head of the family) obtains a certificate. Anyone who obtains a quasi-normal or normal school certificate has received the enlightenment education of tea ceremony. There are many schools of tea ceremony in Japan today, from the oldest Rikyu school with a history of 400 years to new schools that were born in recent years, all with their own characteristics. Judging from the organization of tea parties and the rules of tea ceremony etiquette, each has its own merits. Below is a brief introduction to several schools.
The founder of the Senke school is Sen no Rikyu. During the period when Sen no Rikyu's grandson Zongdan (also known as the ancestor of Sen no Hsing) lived in seclusion, the Senke school was divided into three systems. Show thousands of families. The ancestor was Jiangling Zongzuo, the third son of Zongdan. Jiayuan (head of the family) is collectively called "Bushenan". Omotesenke inherited the teahouse and tea garden passed down by Sen no Rikyu, and maintained the orthodox Zenja tea style. Li Qianjia is a school founded by Zongdan's youngest son Xiansou Zongshi. The Satosen family inherited Zongdan's hermitage "Today'an". Since today's nunnery is located inside Bujin'an, Bujin'an is called Geqianjia, and today's nunnery is called Liqianjia. The martial artist Xiaolu Qianjia. The founder was Zongdan's second son, Yiweng Zongshou, who was known as "Guan Xiu'an". This school is named after Munemori's residence, Mushakoji, Yabuchi School. The ancestor's name was Yaunai Jianzhong. At that time, Yabuuchi and Sen no Rikyu studied under Takeno Shoou. The motto of the Yabui School is "Integrity, Quietness," "Etiquette and Simplicity," and they specialize in academy tea and small teahouse tea. Yuanzhou school. The ancestor's name was Kobori Enshu. Mainly academy tea.
According to the rules of the tea ceremony, strong tea can only be drunk after a meal, so that the tea may be more delicious. Before drinking strong tea at a formal tea party, you must eat a simple meal, which is called a kaiseki meal. Legend has it that the kaiseki meal comes from an ancient story. According to legend, in order to forget about hunger, monks in the Zen monastery put a warm stone in their arms. Kaiseki meals are vegetarian, so they are not luxurious dishes that focus on strong-flavored dishes.
The history of the tea ceremony
Tea was first introduced to Japan in the Nara period, brought back by envoys sent to the Tang Dynasty. However, the transformation of the tea ceremony from "Tang style tea ceremony" to "Japanese style tea soup", that is, the formation of a Japanese style tea ceremony, took place several centuries later in the Muromachi period.
At the end of the 15th century, Murata Shuguang, who was a tea master of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, absorbed the Zen tea ceremony, advocated simplicity and indifference, abandoned the practice of blindly advocating Chinese tea utensils and pursuing luxury, and founded a Zen tea ceremony. tea ceremony. After being perfected by Takeno Shoou and others, it was finally completed by Sen no Rikyu, establishing Japan's authentic tea ceremony. Since then, tea drinking has developed from a simple fun and entertainment into a cultural and artistic activity that expresses Japanese aesthetic tastes and moral concepts. Since the 16th century, this school has evolved into three schools: "Ura Senke", "Omote Senke" and "Musha Koji Senke", which have been passed down to this day.
Japanese Tea Ceremony Spirit
Japanese Tea Ceremony originated from China, but it has a Japanese national flavor. It has its own formation, development process and unique connotations.
Japanese tea ceremony was developed on the basis of "daily tea and meal affairs". It integrates daily life behaviors with religion, philosophy, ethics and aesthetics, becoming a comprehensive cultural and artistic activity. . It is not only about material enjoyment, but also about learning tea etiquette, cultivating temperament, and cultivating people's aesthetic and moral concepts through tea parties. As Nakauchika Kuwada said: "The tea ceremony has progressed from being simply fun, entertainment, and entertainment to becoming a norm and ideal that expresses Japanese daily life culture.
"At the end of the 16th century, Sen no Rikyu inherited and absorbed the spirit of the tea ceremony of the past dynasties and founded the authentic Japanese tea ceremony. He is the master of tea ceremony. By analyzing the spirit of Rikyu tea ceremony, we can understand the highlights of Japanese tea ceremony.
Muruta Shuguang once Sen no Rikyu proposed "respecting silence" as the spirit of the tea ceremony, and used the four words "respecting silence" as the purpose. "Qingji" is also written as "quietness", which refers to aesthetics. The consciousness of this kind of beauty is embodied in the word "嗗". The Japanese pronunciation of "嗗" is "wabi", which originally meant "loneliness", "poverty", "shabby" and "depression". , refers to a frustrated, depressed, lonely person. By the end of the Heian period, the meaning of "嗗" gradually evolved into the meaning of "quiet" and "leisurely", and became a sense of beauty that was highly appreciated by some people at that time. The emergence of it has social historical reasons and ideological roots: from the end of the Heian period to the Kamakura period, it was a period of social turmoil and reorganization in Japan. The formerly dominant nobles lost power, and the emerging samurai class stepped onto the political stage. The nobles who had lost their paradise felt that the world was in trouble. They were pessimistic and tired of the world, so the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism came into being. The frustrated monks regarded the society at that time as a filthy land and called on people to "leave the filthy land and seek the pure land." Under the influence of this thought, many noble literati ran away from home or lived in seclusion. They lived in the mountains and forests, or wandered in the wilderness, built thatched hermitages in the mountains and lived a secluded life, creating so-called "hermitage literature" to express their nostalgia for the past and relieve their accumulated anger. This kind of literature has a gloomy tone and a "mysterious" style of writing. p>
In the Muromachi era, with the development of the commercial economy, fierce competition, busy business activities, and the luxury and hustle and bustle of the city, many people were disgusted with this kind of life and pursued a "Tu" aesthetic sense, finding a secluded place in the suburbs or in the city. In this place, you can live a secluded life, enjoy a little fun of quaint pastoral life, seek mental comfort, and take the beauty of coolness, tranquility, and tranquility. Tea master Murata Shuguang and others introduced this sense of beauty into "tea soup." , so that the beauty of "quietness" has been widely spread.
The tea used in the tea ceremony is called "Tuo tea" (not Tuo tea, ^_^), and "Tuo" means "quietness" and "quietness". . Invite a few friends, sit in a quiet tea room, chat while drinking tea, not caring about worldly affairs, carefree, cultivating one's moral character, and purifying one's soul. There is a unique and beautiful artistic conception in Sen no Rikyu's "Tea Zen". ", "Tea is Zen", can be regarded as the true meaning of tea ceremony.
The ethical concept of "harmony and respect" is a moral concept derived from the period of Tang Dynasty when the possession of things was hot. Since Kamakura, A large number of Tang objects and Song products were shipped to Japan, especially tea sets and artworks, which enhanced the Japanese tea party. However, there was a trend of luxury, and Murata Shuguang and Takeno Shoou were enthusiastic about the art of tea ceremony. Others opposed the trend of luxury and gorgeousness and advocated poverty and simplicity. They believed that the domestic black pottery and dark color had its own simplicity and quiet beauty. Using this simple tea set to entertain guests sincerely has both aesthetic appeal and aesthetic appeal. It is also conducive to the cultivation of moral sentiments.
The Japanese tea ceremony has cumbersome procedures, such as the tea leaves must be ground finely, the tea sets must be wiped clean, and the flower arrangements must be based on the season and the reputation, status, seniority, and age of the guests. and cultural upbringing, etc. to choose. The host's movements must be standardized and agile, with a dance-like rhythm and elegance, and must be accurate. All these show respect for the guests and reflect the spirit of "harmony and respect".
Japanese tea ceremony, with the four characters of "harmony, respect, purity, and silence", has become a cultural and artistic activity that integrates religion, philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.