The main equipment includes the tea whisk (chasen), tea container for the powdered green tea (natsume), tea scoop (chashaku), tea bowl, sweets container or plate , and the kettle and brazier. Each piece of equipment was carefully selected according to circumstance and has its specific place.
What tea is used in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony?
Chanoyu is a ritualized, secular practice in which tea is consumed in a specialized space with codified procedures. The act of preparing and drinking matcha, the powdered green tea used in the ceremony, is a choreographed art requiring many years of study to master.
What equipment is used in the Japanese tea ceremony?
Chawan is the most significant equipment when preparing tea during the Japanese ceremony. The name is used to refer to a traditional bowl that originated from China. In Japan, Chawan has a long string of historical records more so when it comes to a Japanese tea ceremony.
How did the Japanese tea ceremony start?
Ritual tea drinking, which originated in China, was first practiced in Japan during the Kamakura period (1192–1333) by Zen monks , who drank tea to keep awake during long sessions of meditation. It later became an active part of Zen ritual honouring the first patriarch, Bodhidharma (Japanese: Daruma).
What is a Japanese tea bowl?
Central to the ritual is the Japanese tea bowl or chawan, a small handleless vessel in which special tea is made and then drunk . ... The Japanese tea ceremony, also known as the chanoyu, involves the preparation and drinking of a matcha, special kind of powdered green tea.
What is the purpose of Japanese tea ceremony?
Japanese Tea Ceremony represents harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity which we must embrace in order to achieve the main purpose of the tea ceremony. This event is unique as every process from the tea equipment preparation until the tea is drunk has a distinctive technique.
Why do Japanese do tea ceremony?
In Japan, tea is more than just a hot drink. It is a very important ritual that has a lot of meaning within the culture. The tea ceremony represents purity, tranquillity, respect and harmony and a lot of preparation goes into this important event. Discover more about the history of Japanese tea below.
What type of flooring do people sit on during the tea ceremony?
In traditional homes, people eat and sleep on straw floor mats known as tatami . Numerous Japanese cultural activities, from Zen meditation to the tea ceremony, are done completely or partly while sitting on the floor.
Did samurai do tea ceremony?
Every time samurai came back from the battlefield, they practiced the tea ceremony to search the peace in their mind . Also many of them obsessed by collecting the fancy and valuable tea things to show their power.
Is the Japanese Tea Ceremony religious?
Buddhist monks were the first to introduce tea and its serving rituals in Japan. Buddhism is a religious practice that for the most part deals with the inner self and we cannot tell what exactly goes on within the mind of the person meditating. ... These two qualities give the tea ceremony its simple and quiet appearance.
How long does a Japanese tea ceremony take?
A full-length formal tea ceremony involves a meal (chakaiseki) and two servings of tea (koicha and usucha) and lasts approximately four hours , during which the host engages his whole being in the creation of an occasion designed to bring aesthetic, intellectual, and physical enjoyment and peace of mind to the guests.
Why do Japanese drink from bowls?
In Japan the ritual of drinking tea became an artistic and cultural pursuit . Tea bowls in particular were essential to the way of tea (chado) and were believed to evoke complex aesthetic terms such as ‘deeply mysterious’ (yugen) and ‘well worn with age’ (wabi sabi).
Why are Japanese tea cups so small?
One reason for the small cups is because they’re better for taste and appreciation of fine quality teas . When brewing tea the traditional gong-fu way, the general rule is, more leaves, less water, quick infusions. ... The small cups allows you to really appreciate the taste and flavour of each stage of the tea.
What are Japanese tea cups called?
Yunomi (湯のみ) is the term for Japanese tea cups; the cups are handle-less, rather small and cylindrical in shape. Incidentally, the name “yunomi” has nothing to do with tea, but is derived from the description of the item.
What do you say at a tea ceremony?
Address the family members you are serving tea to in kinship terms, and hand them the teacup with both hands. When serving, you must say, “ [kinship term], please drink the tea.”
How many types of Japanese tea are there?
There are currently more than 100 tea cultivars used for making Japanese tea. Tea cultivars are special groups of Camellia sinensis tea plant with unique set of characteristics. Each cultivar will give a different flavor, a different color, and has different characteristics.
