JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY

The Japanese tea ceremony started as an artistic pastime for wealthy merchants, elite warriors, and emperors. The ritual drinking of tea was started in the Kamakura period by Zen monks, who had brought the tea from their studies in China. A Zen teacher called Eisai is credited as being the person who brought tea seeds to Japan, which happened before the Kamakura period (1185-1338). They cultivated tea plants and used them to keep themselves awake while they meditated. It was also used in rituals to honour the Bodhidharma, otherwise known as the Daruma. During the Ashikaga era, tea-drinking became more of an art and started to become appreciated by the samurai class. 

 

In the fifth century, it became a gathering of friends drinking tea in an isolated area to talk about the different aesthetic forms of art. Examples of art could include the ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) in the cha-shitsu, the hanging scroll, and the tea utensils. Murata Shukō, a disciple of the Zen master and abbot Ikkyū, is traditionally credited for the creation of the tea ceremony. Tea was also used to hold contests. During the Muromachi period, contestants had to taste or look at tea and discern the various blends of it. These contests were called tocha and were usually advocated by Murata Shukō as well. Shukō and other tea masters encouraged people to display Zen calligraphy in the cha-shitsu and stressed the importance of the spiritual elements in the ceremony. Another important person who improved the tea ceremony is Sen nō Rikyu, an aesthete who changed part of the ceremony to a different type now known as wabi-cha, which means simplicity or quietude. Many tea masters including Sen Rikyu stated that four qualities were essential for the ceremony to be successful - harmony, respect, cleanliness, and tranquillity. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga were also patrons of the art of tea, and Sen Rikyu was working for Hideyoshi. Although the exact reasons are not known, Sen Rikyu was ordered to commit seppuku (ritual disembowelment) by Hideyoshi. One of the most important textbooks on the art of tea is called the Nambō-Roku, which states that it is about realising that there is a Buddha-land of Purity (however small) where communities gather (no matter how few). 

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In China, Zen monasteries performed the ceremony to entertain guests and themselves. A monk called Dai-ō is said to have introduced the idea of the ceremony and it was improved and changed by other tea masters and monks. Jō-ō and Rikyu improved it and gave it the finishing touches to what we know today.