Japanese Tea

Ceremony

Instructor: Emily GungMay 11, 2005

Valdosta State UniversityLearning in Retirement

Syllabus

Day 1 Introduction & Video

Utensil Quiz

Ceremony Practice

Day 2 Tea Committee

Karate Kid vs.

Real Video

Oriental Napkin

Folding

Day 3 Garden Visit, Haiku

Reading & Green Tea Ice Cream!!

Getting To Know You

My Name: Emily Gung

Green Tea Production

A Message from Urasenke Grand Tea Master

Chado, the Way Of Tea, is based upon the simple act of boiling water, making tea, offering it to others, and drinking of it ourselves. Served with a respectful heart and received with gratitude, a bowl of tea satisfies both physical and spiritual thirst.

The frenzied world and our myriad dilemmas leave our bodies and minds exhausted. It is then that we seek out a place where we can have a moment of peace and tranquillity. In the discipline of Chado such a place can be found. The four principles of harmony, respect, purity and tranquility, codified almost four hundred years ago, are timeless guides to the practice of Chado. Incorporating them into daily life helps one to find that unassailable place of tranquility that is within each of us.As a representative of this unbroken Japanese tradition of four hundred years, I am pleased

to see that many non-Japanese are welcoming the chance to pursue its study. This growing interest in Chado among peoples of all nations leads me to strive even harder to make it possible for more people to enter the Way of Tea.

Soshitsu SenUrasenke Grand Tea Master XV

(source: The booklet, The Urasenke Tradition of Tea)

An Explanation by Sen Soshitsu in Tea Life, Tea Mind:

“Peacefulness through a bowl of tea”

Oldest Longest-Standing Tradition

Stylized Ritualized

"Holding a bowl of tea whisked to a fine froth...Such a simple thing: yet filled with a spirit thatreaches back more than a thousand years."

Tea Masters

Harmony, Respect, Purity, Tranquility

WA KEI SEI JYAKU

Wa (Harmony)

Kei (Respect)

Sei (Purity)

Jyaku (Tranquility)

"Make a delicious bowl of tea."

"Lay the charcoal so that it heats the water."

"Arrange the flowers as they are in the field."

Philosophy

Ichigo Ichie

Wabi Sabi

Sabi

- lone beauty

Wabi

-simple,

unpretentious

beauty

Imperfect, irregular beauty

Austere, stark beauty

Impermanent, Imperfect Beauty

Austere, Stark, Beauty

“See”

“Hear”

“Smell”

“Touch”

“Taste”

To those who waitOnly for flowers,Show them a springOf grass amid the snowIn a mountain village.

By Fujiwara no Letaka