Weekend 1: Special Tea Ceremony

The apartment building we are staying in arranged for a Special Tea Ceremony for the residents on Sunday afternoon.  I was able to attend and it was very nice.  The master of ceremonies was the Japanese women in the picture above.  These tables are specially made for tea ceremonies and every part of it is orderly and ceremonial.  They use the tea ceremony for refreshment and cleansing (it seemed to me that this was mostly spiritual cleansing).

The pot on the right has hot water in it (above).  The ladle on top of it was made of bamboo.  We were told that our ceremony master selected this ladle special because it meant represented people all around the world (which is us...those staying in this building are mostly foreigners to Japan).

Before a tea ceremony a meal is served or, as in our case, just small sweet desserts are presented.  Upon presentation of this food you take the plate, and bow to the ceremony leader in appreciation.  After you eat the little sweets, the ceremony begins.  This included taking a bowl/cup (which you see me drinking from on the left), adding green tea powder, water, whisking it with a bamboo whisk and then the tea being presented to the person it was made for.

When you are presented with the bowl/cup of tea then you hold it and spin it around two times, say something (I can not tell you the Japanese I repeated, but it was to express appreciation to the hostess).  The bowls are very important too and often decorated with the flowers that are celebrated during the season.  There are several seasons (Miyuki said there are almost monthly changes of flowers representing the season you are currently in).  My bowl was made special for those attending their first tea ceremony (how perfect for me, right?).

After the ceremony was over, I and the other participants were invited to make our own tea.  So, here is me doing that.  Thank goodness for Miyuki translating for us!

Below is a photo of the special hanging selected for our ceremony.  The ceremony leader explained what each thing represented and again it has a great deal to do with the season.  These ceremonies are a very important part of Japanese culture and I'm grateful to have gotten to participate.