March 24th 2002
 

               The Tea Ceremony at Chisen-an


 
Preparations of a tearoom
 Preparing and serving tea
The utensils for the tea
 Ro(winter)-season
   Furo(summer)-season
 
 

 

             The Tea Ceremony 

The tea ceremony is called Chanoyu(hot water for green tea) also called Sadou
(ways to serve tea).
It is a highly structured method of preparing powdered green tea for guests. However, it is not only  a manner of making and serving tea, but also a composite art with various elements of Japanese tradition; such as history, architecture, gardening, calligraphy, pottery, lacquer ware, flower arrangement and so on.

Practicing tea ceremony would give us keen eyes to see the beauty in simplicity, sensitivity to nature, artistic creativity, and Buddhistic thoughts. 
The whole making-tea process would produce a peaceful atmosphere in each tea room and would bring comfort to our mind.

The tea ceremony, we are learning now, was originally founded by Sen no Rikyu in sixteenth century.
Rikyu's successors(his sons and his leading pupils) have been handing down the way of the tea ceremony to their posterity and followers up to the present.

        The practice of the tea ceremony at Chisen-an in February

        Chisen-an


Chisen-an is the name of my mother's tea room. My mother started to learn the tea ceremony when she was five years old. Since then she has been learning the tea ceremony for eighty years.
 

 Chisen-an in May

 

The tea ceremony for me

I have been learning the tea ceremony since 1960 under the direction of my mother.
My mother's tea room Chisen-an is always filled with comfortable atmosphere, and it gives me a rest and a lot of pleasure.

 
 

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