The Art and Craft of Tea by Joseph Wesley Uhl

After reading The Art and Craft of Tea past Joseph Wesley Uhl, I slowly started to become fascinated with the art of making and enjoying tea. While I accept previously written about unlike types of teas in another mail, I failed to mention much of the culture behind tea and tea preparation, especially in Japanese culture which has some of the most complex tea preparation techniques. And then, in this post, I will be exploring the art of the Japanese tea ceremony, known in Japanese as chanoyu.

Chanoyu literally means "hot water for tea" and must exist performed in a special area with a special technique and involves matcha tea, which is a type of powdered light-green tea. One of the purposes of the anniversary, which takes years to master, is to relax and retreat from busy life by entering the solitude of a small hut that can merely adapt about four people, the hut usually surrounded by a peaceful garden.

In one case in the tea room, the interaction between the host, the tea, and the guests becomes extremely important. Interestingly, every tea ceremony is unique because of the way the host chooses his utensils for tea grooming, the utensils chosen from a diverseness of objects that are never the same twice. Every bit for the guests, their function is certainly non but to sit around and drink tea. They must act in a sure manner in accord with the host to maintain the proper air of the anniversary. For example, when the guests are given a warm bowl of matcha tea, rather than gulping it down immediately, they are expected to reflect on the dazzler of the emerald green tone of the tea, on the smell, on the warmth of the basin, and then, finally on the taste.

The ceremony is an event that can concluding several hours. After bowing, sitting on the tatami flooring and bowing again, the ceremony starts with the quiet admiration of the simple tea business firm surroundings which may be a pocket-sized blossom arrangement or a coil. The anniversary then progresses to enjoying Kaiseki ryori, which is a refined multi-form meal, then followed by the drinking of thick tea, and so followed by the drinking of thin tea. However, many tea ceremonies these days may just include tea drinking.

Usually a small sugariness is served before the drinking of tea. When the tea bowl is served to yous, pick it upward in your correct mitt and balance it in your left palm and make sure to plow the bowl so the front is not facing you but instead faces the host. Afterwards finishing your tea, bow. For tea house guests, especially tourists, it is preferred that simple clothing is worn and strong perfumes are avoided as they might take away from the delicate scents of the tea. It is not expected that tourists know all the details of the tea ceremony, simply information technology certainly helps to familiarize yourself with the process to maintain the respect and dignity of the ceremony.

The type of vessels used in chanoyu are traditionally made of ceramic and include bowls rather than cups for tea, too as water jars and tea caddies. All of these vessels that brand upward a tea fix usually are very minimalistic even so aesthetically pleasing in appearance. These vessels are likewise chosen by the host and offering a chance for the host to display his refined tastes in pattern.

The Japanese tea ceremony as we are familiar with it today began around the 16th century and was mainly a practice for rulers, prestigious merchants, and elite warriors to network together. The ceramic tea sets that came to exist used in Nihon originated from China and Korea. The signal of using plain, rather unglamorous ceramic vessels was to gloat natural and imperfect forms and this aesthetic is known as wabi ⁱ.

Earlier the wabi view was developed, ceramic tea sets were mainly used by farmers and peasants. While these tea sets were unglazed, in the kiln as they were fired they would sometimes be naturally glazed with hot ash, giving the tea vessels a completely spontaneous and random appearance. This immune the opportunity for some tea sets to naturally be more than attractive than others, permitting them to be chosen by tea masters and declared works of fine art. Nevertheless, these natural and unpredictable results did not concluding long. Equally time progressed and kilns became more advanced, potters were able to meliorate control the results of the objects they fired.

Photograph byCharlotte May fromPexels.

With more avant-garde kilns, more avant-garde types of ceramics were able to exist fired, such as Raku ware. In the tea community, Raku ware was–and is–highly revered due to its difficult production. Raku ware is very lightweight and created by molding clay into exceptional thinness while maintaining evenness. Other wares were more middle-communicable such equally Oribe ware which was unremarkably glazed in startling green and no dubiousness would have been a great choice to surprise tea business firm guests. Shino ware was more than mild, ordinarily with a pale, milk-toned coat, sometimes even hand-painted.

Interestingly, until the 17th century, potters remained anonymous since they did non sign their work (though sure artistic styles might indicate a detail artist). Once the 17th century rolled around, potters finally began marker their work. I of the starting time potters to practice this was Nonomura Ninsei, whose work, interestingly, was nothing related to wabi. His tea jars and other wares were instead enameled with brilliant and delicate colors. Despite this dissimilar style, Ninsei'due south wares were notwithstanding highly valued by tea masters for their refined nature. Interestingly, since this period, the practice of the Japanese tea ceremony has remained relatively unchanged, giving tea house guests the feeling of briefly stepping back in fourth dimension.

References:

1. Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Fine art. (2011). "The Japanese Tea Ceremony." The Met. Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hard disk drive/jtea/hd_jtea.htm.

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Source: https://thewanderingantiquarian.wordpress.com/2021/08/07/the-japanese-tea-ceremony/

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