When all the guests have been served, some of the utensils are presented to them for appreciation. The host removes the utensils and bows to the guests, marking the end of the tea ceremony. In more elaborate tea gatherings, a meal may be eaten and both koicha and usucha may be served.
-TOSHIKO MORI
IN ANGLING, a line with a lure at the end is dropped into the water to catch the fish. Now, in order to allure and entertain a guest, what should be presented by the host? When an important guest is treated so well that he wishes to remain in the house much longer, then the joy of both guest and host is greatest.
Chikamatsu Shigenori, a vassal of the Owari clan, conceived the idea of writing this book. He collected various anecdotes about people who had distinguished themselves in the society of the tea ceremony. These people range from imperial princes down to hermits withdrawn from the world. Chikamatsu finally compiled these stories in three volumes with illustrations inserted here and there. He called the book Stories from a Tearoom Window, and it clearly reveals the true pleasures found in the tea ceremony by those interested in it. Gentlemen attending the tea ceremony generally have felt that idle talk or gossip should be avoided, but Chikamatsu declared that silence is not necessarily a virtue at the tea ceremony. Rather, it is the pleasure of entertaining guests with the utmost hospitality that is indeed beyond description. Chikamatsu’s elaborate work should be sincerely appreciated. The essence of the tea ceremony does not lie merely in the satisfaction of the sense of taste, but in the friendly association of strangers, of those of the lower classes with those of the nobility. In the observance of manners in the severe formalities of the tea ceremony, mutal understanding and friendliness are created. Cannot the casting of a fishing line be compared to the entertainment of happy guests?
When this book was completed, I was asked to write a few words; so here I present my own poor remarks.
-KIMURA TOSHIATS
In the old days, there were no fixed rules about the dimensions or arrangement of the room used for the tea ceremony. A square hearth was set into the floor wherever it suited the room. For example, a room designed by Murata Shuko is said to have been the size of six tatami in area. And the hearth was installed in any of three places, irrespective of the size of room. It is reported that these were the “upper” position, the “lower” position, and a spot quite close to the sill, in front of the utensil tatami. Later Takeno Jo-o reduced the size of the room to four and a half tatami in area, and the hearth was installed only at about the lower middle of the room. Since then this has come to be called the four-and-a-half-tatami style. Afterward, Sen no Rikyu designed a room of three tatami and one daime tatami in area, and called it the daimegamae style. He installed the hearth above the middle of the room. This is the origin of the daimegamae-style hearth. The terms “upper” hearth and “lower” hearth, which had long been applied, came to be disused. At present there are very few tea connoisseurs who know of the old style.
*
Murata Shuko (1423-1502): originator of the tea ceremony
tatami: straw floor-mat, about 0.9 by 1.8 meters
Takeno Jo-o (1502-55): tea master and teacher of Sen no Rikyu Sen no Rikyu (1522-91): the greatest tea master, who perfected the tea ceremony
daimegamae: type of small arbor-style tearoom using daime tatami (about three-fourths the size of standard tatami)
2. Ground plan of a four-and-a-half-tatami tearoom.
2. Lord Yoshimasa’s Tearoom
Jishoinden, Lord Yoshimasa, loved the tea ceremony greatly, and Shinno was his instructor. In Lord Yoshimasa’s day, the procedures for the tea ceremony were formulated, and its performance was formalized. The lord’s room for the tea gathering was eight tatami in size, and on the four walls were hung eight scrolls with landscapes by the priest Yujian, including his praise of his own work. Flowers were arranged and displayed as well. It is said that the tea ceremony was held there using a daisu.
Sen no Rikyu was called Yoshiro when young. When he was planning to serve tea for the first time, he asked Kitamuki Dochin, who was already famous as a venerated tea master in Sakai, to give him instruction. Dochin’s friends also joined him in teaching Yoshiro. They all found him to have great qualifications for the tea ceremony and expected him to become an outstanding tea master in the future, but they felt that some correction was needed in his way of serving tea. They said he should not take such large scoops of powdered tea out of the big chaire he used. If he would try to use only a small amount of tea and whisk it in a scouring manner, his method would indeed be conspicuously improved. These were their comments. On hearing them Rikyu was able to recognize their true significance, and afterward he developed remarkably, it is said.
*
Kitamuki Dochin: Araki Dochin (1504-62); instructed Rikyu in the tea ceremony and then introduced him to Jo-o
Sakai: trading port near Osaka; birthplace of Rikyu
chaire: ceramic caddy for powdered tea, used in the preparation of koicha (thick tea) (pp. 30, 71)
3. Utensils of the tea ceremony arranged on a daisu. Left to right: (above) whisk in tea bowl, scoop, and tea caddy in cloth bag; (below) kettle on brazier, ladle and charcoal chopsticks in ladle stand, kettle-lid stand in waste-water vessel, and fresh-water jar.
Rikyu thought of various innovations. In the tea ceremony using a daisu, he reduced the two bags enclosing the chaire to one, and shortened the long string of the bag. There was an old custom of tying the string variously in an open dragonfly knot, a closed dragonfly knot, and so on, but he tied it with only the open dragonfly knot. He made many such revisions.
However, the opening of a slit in the chaire bag was the idea of So-on, Rikyu’s second wife. She was very clever. Once, when she was sewing a bag for a chaire, she cut a slit in it for the first time. In another case, she was creative enough to open a hole in the post of a tankei, where there had been none in former days, so it is said.
*
So-on: Riki (d. 1600)
tankei: oil lampstand. The wick is fed through the hole in the post.
4. Ceramic tea caddy (katatsuki chaire) and its bag.
