The Way of Tea

Tea ceremony in a quick review

To serve tea...it's a whole story !

As strange as it may seem, I will barely mention what actually happens during a tea ceremony except for the next paragraph. That is because there are a great variety of ways to serve tea and it is better to experience them first hand. Let’s keep it as a surprise ! One thing, and one thing only, is absolutely unchanged in every tea ceremony : the tea used is a tea powder called matcha. 

Broadly speaking, what is a « tea ceremony » ? It is an event organized by a host in a place that is adequate or not for tea and to which the guests attend generally with some preparation. A great deal of codes govern over the behavior of the host and his way of serving tea (and, sometimes, to serve a meal). Almost as many codes govern over the behavior of the guests. Why are there so many codes ? Some would say that it makes the ceremony "beautiful", others would say that it makes it easier to practice tea as a kind of "meditation in action" if you know what you are supposed to do in advance. But I could not answer that question with a single answer.

The occasion of the tea ceremony are as flexible as any social practice : a new year or a birthdays, a desire to see each other or to have a serious conversation — these are just examples. The atmosphere of the ceremony, of course, must vary depending on the occasion and it is the host’s duty to consider it.

As for how the ceremony actually takes place, one can only say that it is generally quiet, sometimes meditative, and it requires above all a sense of preparation. The host, just like the guests, must have a good knowledge of what they are supposed to do so that everything unravels smoothly with no stumbles nor embarrassing moments.

In case of a tea ceremony with non-practitioners, the host must act with consideration to that fact. If you are a guest in such case, do not let that bother you : just do what you think is best and don't stress : you are here to relax and enjoy.

A tea set for a "tray" tea ceremony

The Japanese name of the tea ceremony is Sado (茶道). Sado should be translated as the Way of Tea. And « Way » must be understood here in its Asian meaning as a path that shapes one’s life. I will get back to that later. The tea ceremony is also sometimes called chanoyu (茶の湯) which means « hot water of tea ». Their are many explanations to this name and I will just mention one of them : it is supposed to remind hosts and guests that tea is simply the act of serving tea. And here, we already have a megalomaniac name and a humble name to deal with. And to tell you the truth, it is still just the beginning.

The subject of the tea ceremony and its history is so sensitive among practitioners today that to write a consensual introduction to the tea ceremony is a very difficult task. It is partly due to the fact that contradictory informations are common. Certainly, most people agree very vaguely on the chronology and the basics of Tea. But everything regarding the spirit with which it must be practiced and the interpretations to give to the countless legends and tales that go with it is the subject of great debate.

Anyway, that is why I will only stick to the few things that I have understood from my various readings and conversations in the hope that it will be interesting to my readers. I have no pretension to present here the one and unique truth about what tea is or what it should be.

Sen no Rikyu

History of the tea ceremony :
Sen no Rikyu, the founding father of modern tea.

Each tea master has his or her own history of the tea ceremony. The vast majority of what is passed down through generations is an oral testament. That is why one says that tea is originally Chinese, another says that it comes from the bushi class (the Japanese warriors) and yet many others mention the courtship or religious ancestors of tea. To my knowledge, none of these stories are wrong. Indeed, There used to be worldly meetings, up until the end of the 16th century at least, during which aristocrates would contest on guessing where the matcha came from and exhibit their most beautiful pieces. And there used to be a monastic tradition of tea too : buddhist monks used to drink matcha to keep them awake during meditations. As far as my knowledge goes, I think that both these two practices, social and meditative, are at the root of today tea ceremony. There might be other roots though. But, very often, the difference between various tea practices stems from these two poles (pleasure of the meeting/trying to achieve social status or having a spiritual appreciation of art/intensity of the meditative moment).

On the origin of modern tea, one thing is sure : tea has known a revolution with the merchant called Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591).

From what I have read so far, Rikyu is not the « creator » of the tea ceremony. He is more like a great reformer like Luther or some kind of Mozart after whom even silence does not hold the same meaning anymore. Before Rikyu, there were a lot of practices in different social classes (monks, warriors, aristocrates) and people like Murata Jukô (1423–1502) or Takeno Jôô (1502-1555) played an important role in transforming these practices before Rikyu did. 

Rikyu’s « revolution » came from the massive consensus that he created around some radical changes in the practice of tea. For a certain time, he managed to aggregate  differing characteristics of the many practices of tea (from both from the court and the religious sides) in a unique cultural movement. To do this, Rikyu received the important support of the Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1537-1598) who, as a great lover of tea, compelled — or, at least, strongly promoted — the practice in every social classes.

Nevertheless, it would be useful to notice that, even when Rikyu was alive, many tea masters had already developed their own aesthetic preferences far from that of Rikyu himself.

Then came the time of the schools. The grandson of Rikyu, Sen Sôtan (1578–1658) had three children. Each of them founded his own school : Omote-senke, Ura-senke and Mushanokoji-senke. Beside these three schools, Sôtan pupils and Rikyu’s friends built their own schools too while in many domains, regional tea masters unrelated to Rikyu started to rule and organize their teachings. Today, there are more than sixty important school with the three « senke » in a league above all others.

The history of these schools and of their practices continues up to our times. It would be impossible to count all the small stories and legends that came along with the many great tea masters that existed. If you want to know more about them, you can read the very important  (and engaged) english literature on that subject. For now, I will just focus on some characteristics of tea  in Rikyu’s times.

Characteristics of Tea in Rikyu's time

Here, I will not try to explain what fundamentally changed with Rikyu because no tea master agrees with the others on that question. Nevertheless, I can note here some major changes that are probably shared by every follower of the Way of Tea. I count three characteristics of this « modern tea » : ethic, simplicity and individual aesthetic.

Flower arrangement is part of any tea master's knowledge

 Ethic. The way of modern tea is probably an ethic as much as a practice. In that regard, it is, indeed, a « Way » (Dô 道) in the Chinese and Japanese sense of that term. Chajins (men of tea) are supposed to behave at any time with respect to items and people, attention to details and love of nature. One could almost say that the practice of serving tea itself is not required to be a chajin. As Okakura Tenshin had noted, a very common expression is to say mucha no cha : « tea without tea ». And Okakura explains that one can, indeed, behave as if they were serving tea even when they are not.

Simplicity. The Way of Tea invites the host to serve tea with simplicity and/or humility. To know what these words mean here is another question. Tea ceremonies usually require a scarcity in decoration. One should not pile up items and paintings or show anything too fancy that would disturb the guests’ attention. But, meanwhile, the respect due to the guests requires that the host use rare and precious items and/or prepare surprises that will make the event unforgettable (or simply worthwhile).

Consequently, it would be difficult to know where to put the threshold. Partisans of the most « meditative tea » would almost say that decoration barely matter (or that it must, for that specific reason, be wabi, see below). More worldly practitioners would argue that it is pointless to serve a guest in dishes that are not attractive or difficult to appreciate.

Individual aesthetic. The tea ceremony itself must be prepared with the greatest care to be a nice aesthetic moment for the guests. Of course, it requires that the host knows their taste. But it also requires that the host him/herself has original and pleasant tastes. In that regard, modern tea ceremony is an invitation to develop an individual aesthetic. However, the multiplication of various rules that has come with the proliferation of schools makes it so that, today, many practionners do not consider that growing an individual aesthetic is a priority. To some of them, it seems like only the Masters have a right to an opinion.

Nevertheless, I would like to recall here that almost all the pupils and friends of Rikyu have developed their own aesthetic world. For example, Furuta Oribe is very famous today because he developed, mostly alone, his very own style of ceramics. Indeed, today, Oribe is considered as a great Master (and almost a semi-god). But he himself used to be a student and he did not wait for the agreement of his master to promote his own tastes.

History has decided that in the middle of the 17th century, the schools have quickly sanctified the taste of their founders and of their heirs. Today, their art is so refined that the title of master cannot be reached without at least 10 years of practice (in most schools, with a weekly practice). One should not underestimate the importance of these « added » rules : most of them are succesful attempts to deepen the practice at the cost of a growing complexity.

A Burma jewel box I use to contain tea

On the concept of Wabi-Sabi

An amateur tea bowl I saw in Saga

 Some practitioners assert that the modern tea ceremony announces the triumph of the aesthetic called wabi(-sabi). Wabi and Sabi could be roughly translated as « melancholic and rustic ». It involves a taste for things that are old, worn out, dulled by the ages, trimmed by dirt, water, wind and flames. 

It is certainly true that Rikyu, in private, was peculiarly fond of items in the wabi style that was  already popularized among aristocrats some decades before by Murata Jukô.

With that being said, it is easily forgotten that, for Rikyu himself, a wabi tea-bowl would never be as « formal » (i.e. « noble ») as a Chinese tea bowl. One could also mention that, while Rikyu was promoting the works of the Raku family (a reference in wabi aesthetic), the Great Master himself was designing a whole tea set in massive gold to serve Hideyoshi Toyotomi and his guests. He even designed the famous « golden portable pavillon » for his lord. All of this is very far from the « mountain hut » that many tea practioner cherish and a lot closer to the court tea of the aristocrats.

Consequently, I find it difficult to assert that the wabi aesthetic, popularized by RIkyu, is at the very heart of the modern tea ceremony. Beside, the tea schools have always held Chinese porcelain and Chinese tea bowls (wabi or not) in the highest esteem. Is wabi so important then ?

A water jar seen at a museum in Tamba

Tea today

In the tea world, apart from the two poles of « social/court » and « meditative » tea, one can identify two sub-groups : the schools and the freelances.

Schools

The Japanese schools and their subgroups all over the world gather the vast majority of tea practioners in Japan and around the globe. As time went by, they became both the guardians and counterfeiters of Rikyu’s tradition. Today, they have gathered a great number of disciples, although, as in any era, tea masters say that the Way of Tea is dying. At each new generation, the most important school can change depending on the charisma of its Great Master (Iemoto). Today, the most important school (in terms of number of pupils) is Urasenke. This is partly due to the influence of its former Great Master, Soshitsu Sen XV who is retired now.

Besides, it is worth noting that, even among pupils of the same school, very different practices of tea exist. To my knowledge, in each school, some disciples like to stay close to the medidative style that Rikyu liked in private while others like to rediscover the more social kind of tea. The kind that Rikyu mainly practiced in public (and certainly not with any discomfort as I said before).

Freelances

Adam "Sômu" making tea in UK's mountains.

In the last decade, in parallel to these schools, many free styles of tea have bloomed, especially outside of Japan. In general, the « freelance » practitioners are salary (wo)men who practice tea as a hobby. This new wave gave birth to new practices, very often close to artistic performances or, at least, a lighter version of the tea ceremony, its difficult rules and sometimes pompous sacralisation. 

Most of the time, these practitioners have received a « classical » education in Tea and they sometimes stay close to their school.

In this parallel universe, one can find everything : tea houses on bicycle or in dormitories, « black metal » tea ceremony or outdoor tea for strangers with Moroccan pastries. The range of possibilities is almost infinite.

Do these new practices have the same depth and the same quality as the tea practiced in schools ? The question can be asked for each new performance and anyone is welcome to have his/her own opinion about it. Just in case, I would like to invite the most purists to avoid any rushed judgement on what they sometimes see as an apostasia. Different does not alway mean « worse ».

If you would like to know more about theses « free » practices, I would recommend you to visit some pages like the page of  Adam Sômu who is part of a group called the World Tea Gathering that promotes such practices.

About my own practice

I have been studying tea for almost two years now with Gilles Maucout, Tea Master of the school Sohen Ryu Shoden An. Besides this rigorous training on the fundamentals of tea liked by « Master Sôki », I also practice in my own room that became my chashitsu (tea house) and outdoor, sometimes with textiles designed for the occasion or sometimes just improvising. I am certainly young in the practice of tea. 

As I tried to explain in this article, I have a deep respect for any way of tea. Mine is linked to wabi and the most « meditative » side of tea, but that is just my personal taste.

If you would like to meet Gilles Maucout, my master, in Paris, you can make an appointement for a tea ceremony in a real tea house in the shop Georges Cannon. My master will be happy to discuss with you after he has served you a bowl of tea.

Tea ceremony in my "chashitsu room"