Japanese meets “Cha no yu”
Macha, which is the different name for Japanese powdered green tea, is now very popular around the world. Using it for sweets or tenderized meat or mixing it with salt, it will be a fancy side dish. But how was it brought to Japan? What is the relationship with Japanese tea ceremony?
Meeting Japanese Tea
I was in the States but far from New York when 9/11 happened, watching the news of the planes crashing into the Twin Tower of the World Trade Center. I was an exchange student from my university, my first time back after leaving the States. I was all excited for this and even thinking about staying here, transferring to the university in the States. But after I saw the news, it made me think about why I was born as a Japanese.
Soon after coming home to Japan, I started searching for a Japanese tea teacher near my house and I found a perfect teacher that I could respect. She was such a beautiful person in her heart and how she lives her life was a role model to me.
Start of tea
Tea came to Japan around 710 in the Nara period when Japan was learning many things from the next door neighbor, China. At that time, China was the leading-edge and Japan built the country following how they did politics and culture. Kyoto was once a capital called Heian-kyo that was designed based on Shinjinsoo, Chinese geomancy about guardian mythical creatures representing north the mountain (Genbu), south the sea or river (Sujaku), facing the water on the both sides (east is Seiryu, west is Byako) are the hills or lower mountains to create enough wind and water. The place which were like this showed happiness, good health, and blowing the negative away.
A Japanese monk named Eisai who started one of Zen Buddhism Rinzai visited China (Sou) and learned how tea would work also as a medicine, he came back and wrote a book called “Kissa Yojoki”. This was the very first professional book about tea explaining the efficacy. The book also explained how to drink tea not just from the leaf but grinding the tea leaf with a millstone and producing a powdery tea which we are familiar with now.
In the 15th century, tea was served at a fancy party with many gorgeous tools. On the other hand, a monk named Murata Juko started tea using simple Japanese traditional utensils. This was the start of “Wabi cha”, the beauty of drinking simple and silent tea. It was passed to Takeno Joo, who was the tea teacher of Sen no Rikyu that turned this style to “Cha no yu” or Japanese tea ceremony.
Rikyu, known as the most influential Japanese tea master, was the tea master for Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Nobunaga made the Japanese tea ceremony as a place to enjoy the specialty and power trip. Samurai would all together bring the most “specialty” utensils saying that “The country and castle represents the specialty” and it showed of peace, obedience, and reward. But Rikyu aimed for a ceremony that would communicate heart to heart. This is why it is called “Wabi cha” and now represents a traditional way of the greatest hospitality. The guest feels the “heart” of the host through the tea ceremony but it is said that it takes many years to be like this. My teacher used to say, “Don’t think in your head. Think with your heart and then your body will naturally move to the right place.”
My Love of Japanese Tea Ceremony
I don’t remember when I felt making Japanese tea was so relaxing. At first I wanted to be good at it, learn, just learn from my teacher. She was such a sweet 80 year old that just wanted me to learn from her. But I felt that I thought of nothing, I could empty my head and just concentrate on making the perfect tea. The smell of the tea, listening to the kettle sing, stimulating my five senses. This made me relax, this had to be my routine to end my busy weekdays. And the Japanese tea ceremony saved me when I was back in the States the third time when I felt lonely. It was a relaxing moment and I could meet people through this wonderful Japanese tradition. I can still hear my teacher say, “Think from your heart how you want to welcome the person and give just a sip of tea.”
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