Sado, tea ceremony Teeseremoniaa opettelen joka perjantai opettajani Kitamuran johdolla. Kuulun Urasenken ( 裏) koulukuntaan, joka on suosituin kaikista. Alla hieman teeseremonian taustasta ja omista edesottamuksistani teen tiella.
Teceremoni ovar jag varge fredag med ledining av Kitamura sensei. I det nasta ett par ord om teceremonins ursprung och om mina aventyrer pa vagen av te.Sado, tea ceremony
Sado or chado, I practice under the guidance of Kitamura sensei (Urasenke school) every Friday for several hours. Below just a brief history and more of my adventures on the way of tea.
Napsauta pikkukuvaa (talla hetkella vain nelio, silla kuvat eivat lataudu oikein sivuston yllapitotoimenpiteiden vuoksi) ylhaalla oikealla katsoaksesi vuoden ensimmaista seremoniaa, hatsugamaa. Tama kuvakirja siis toimii muutoksista huolimatta. – For att titta pa bilder tagna pa hatsugama, arets forsta ceremoni, klicka pa bliden ovan till hoger. (Bilden visas tyvarr for tillfallet som en tom ruta, men lanken till bilderna fungerar. – To see pictures of Hatsugama, a formal gathering for the New Year, click on the small image (shown as a square for the moment, but the link itself works) in the right top corner.Sado is said to have it’s origins in the Buddhist temples of Kyoto. Sen-no-Rikyu, a wealthy merchant and patron of those temples, is hailed as the “founder” of sado, but the truth is probably not that simple. Sen-no-Rikyu is, however, a real person that lived in the 17th century, and he did design tea rooms, or rather, tea huts, for the temple Koudaiji. Sen-no-Rikyu has become a legend and myth, maybe in the search for prestigious authorities to legitimate tea ceremony in the later years.
Sado has gained conciderable prestige, and is a way for (e.g.) women, that have had few possibillities to educate themselves, to rise on the social ladder. As the practice of Buddhist meditation and scholarship was highly regarded in the 17th century, the merchants, who were at the bottom of the “caste system” of those times, had a chance to gain respect and cultural capital (see: Bourdieu) through the patronage of temples. The same logic seems to work today, suggests Etsuko Kato (The tea ceremony and women’s empowerment in modern Japan: bodies re-presenting the past. London : RoutledgeCurzon, 2004): women in post-war Japan have had few or no possibilities to educate themselves, as their husbands, sons, and now even daughters, to some extent, have (had). As sado is an almost all-encompassing form of art that requires ultimate body control as well as great knowledge about the tea ceremony itself, pottery and china, calligraphy, architechture, flower arrangement, to mention just a few, it is highly regarded even today.
Keiko is a word used in Japanese for practice, in this case tea ceremony practice, or lessons, as opposed to formal or informal real tea ceremonies. In my keiko, every Friday, I practice pre-class preparations, folding of special napkins, choosing utensils, making and serving tea, and finally cleaning up the utensils and tea room.
Hatsugama is the first formal ceremony of the year. This one is at the tea hut of the 21st century museum of contemporary art in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. The small photo at the top of this page will take you to the slides of this particular hatsugama.
I acquired some tea utensils, and learned to make some myself. For example, the tea scoop, or chashaku, is something tea teachers or masters sometimes carve themselves… at least the scoops made by famous tea personalities are very expensive. This is my first attempt:
I also learned to make Japanese sweets used in tea ceremony, wagashi, that are made by hand much like marzipan figures, but with white and azuki beans.
I also purchased some utensils and gear:
Among the gear that I bought, my kimono and accessories are the most expensive:
And acquired some more:
These are Kutani porceline, very typical of the area where I live; KanazawaAnd received some from Kim: and the knitting teacher: and my tea teacher: the fork and holder in one of the pictures above (she helped me in many other ways,too, e.g. giving me futons and stuff)
and most of all, my English student and friend, Taniguchi san: (who also helped me and showed me around during my stay)
The way of the tea is an endless road, but fortunatley sometimes an opportunity to walk along tranquil paths, worn stepping stones, or stone bridges under which the carp swim. Some of these paths were designed and used by the founding fathers of tea ceremony (for fathers they were, and are, up to this day) such as Sen no Rikyu or Kobori Enshu. I visited some tea huts of these renowned lovers of simple things (or that is what we like to think).
