tea ceremony-Yoshi

     In your country, what kind of tea do you drink? Coffee? Black tea? Chai tea? Or green tea? Japanese usually drink green tea. And it has very long history. So I’d like to tell you about green tea and a history of tea ceremony.

     At first, have you seen tea ceremony? A woman who wears “Kimono” whisks a bowl of green tea. I believe you have seen this scene. Basically, making green tea is very easy. Put a scoop of Matcha powder and pour boiled water in a bowl, then whisk them. It’s so easy. However, this ceremony has so deep and huge histories. It came from China in 700s. Then one Japanese monk established tea ceremony as courtesy and art. Since then many people learn tea ceremony and extend it. Therefore, there are a lot of way to make green tea. Each way has different process to make a tea, how pour boiled water, when they bow, how they open Matcha container, and how they whisk the tea. My mother have been learning tea ceremony for 20years. But she is still learning a lot. I also had learn a few years. Surprisingly, we don’t have any textbook for learning tea ceremony. It’s been succeeding by oral instruction. Thanks to the oral instruction, it’s taken care of so carefully.

     So, tea ceremony is not only about making and drinking green tea. Usually the tea party has at special Japanese traditional room. At the room, we hang Japanese calligraphy on the wall and put flower arrangement. Both of them are also Japanese art. And each season, we put calligraphy and flower and tea bowl which indicate the season. For example, when we have a tea party in spring, we have a flower arrangement with cherry blossoms, and a bowl too. These explain means, tea party require us a lot of knowledge of Japanese traditional culture.

     Basically, tea ceremony is look like formal. Actually, yes. Thus we don’t have many people who have attend a tea party even Japanese. Now, I brought some green tea tools from Japan. So, if you want to try green tea, you can ask me anytime.