Do you know anything about Japanese Tea Culture? The most famous tea master is Sen no Rikyu (千利休) who lived from 1522 to 1591. There are more than 400 years' traditions in cha no yu (茶の湯), tea ceremony.
There was hatsu gama (初釜), first tea ceremony of the year at my masters' house. I wore kimono and went to attend around 10:30 AM. It started at 11:00 AM and ended at 4:00 PM. There were 11 guests. There are many procedures and rules in tea ceremony.
After greeting, we washed our hands and rinsed our mouth at the outside stone basin and entered the main room. First was the charcoal procedure called sumi demae (炭点前), followed by thick tea procedure called koicha (濃茶). Before koicha, we ate sweets called hanabira mochi (花びら餅), petal shaped soft rice cake, which is especially made for the first tea ceremony. Koicha is drunk by some people from the same bowl. After Koicha, there was a break and we had kaiseki (懐石) cuisine. Our master is from Kyoto, therefore we enjoyed special white miso taste zoni (雑煮) eaten in Kyoto area, too. After that there was a short break again to change the room decoration. Finally there was a thin tea procedure called usu cha (薄茶). At that time I was honored to be the main guest called shokyaku (正客).
I started learning the Omote senke (表千家) tea ceremony in the fall of 1988. For several years I have practiced every week, but after that I was not able to attend regular lessons, so I only joined these special occasions.
I am not good at sitting on my heels (seiza: 正座), but I like both serving tea and drinking tea.
Green tea is very good for your health. So please try!
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