Big Ass Cup o' Tea

This Sunday, Rieko and I went to a really fun festival - the Ōchamori-shiki at Saidai-ji Temple in Nara. The festival was basically a tea ceremony, but one like no other in Japan. In this festival, which is held every April and October, they use giant chawan (tea bowls) to serve the tea.

Not only were the tea bowls huge, but so were all of the utensils used in the tea ceremony. They had a enormous natsume filled with over a liter of matcha powder. They purified it with a ridiculously sized fukusa (square silk cloth). It was funny to watch the monk try to fold it perfectly given its unwieldy nature. The chasen (tea whisk) was massive! Instead of holding it sort of gracefully between his thumb and forefinger, the monk had to use his whole hand. And, the chashaku (tea scoop) was epic. Just imagine how much matcha he added with each scoop and a half. Sweet! Whisking the tea with the massive chasen had to be fun. The monk looked like he was enjoying himself, even though he really had to put some elbow grease in.

Since everything was so gigantic, each chawan held five servings of tea instead of just one. Due to the size and weight of the bowl plus the tea (roughly 7-8kg), the first few people to drink from each chawan needed to have their neighbors help them to hold the bowl while they took their sips. Thankfully, the sweets were normal size.

Looking back on this post, I guess I used a lot of "technical" tea terms... sorry! So, let me sum up the experience for you. I had a big ass cup o' tea prepared by a monk using comically oversized tea utensils. I loved it!

The Way of Tea

For the last few months, I have been studying tea ceremony at the Kyoto International Community House. We just had our class demonstration this week. The above picture shows the awesome Beginner students on the last day of class.

The class is intended to be a way for foreigners to immerse themselves in Japanese culture as well as a chance for Japanese to experience a cultural exchange. But, one thing that fascinates me (especially given the cross cultural harmony shtick) is that the class is roughly three times more expensive for Japanese students. Huh.

We are learning about the elements in a tea room, the tools needed to perform a tea ceremony, how to serve sweets and tea, how to eat sweets, how to drink tea, how to walk, how to enter and leave a tea room, and how to open/prepare/close a tea ceremony.

Each week, we have a new calligraphy scroll and a new flower arrangement placed in the tokonoma (scroll alcove) in the tea room. These items are specially chosen to correspond with the season/weather outside or to reflect an important truth. Our sweets are different each class too and similarly reflect the time of year. I expect that this week or next week, we will have a sakura (cherry blossom) themed class.

There are many detailed rules, prescribed phrases and gestures for both hosts and guests, but somehow it is still relaxing. My cool and fun classmates have a lot to do with that. In fact, I have enjoyed the class so much that I have signed up for another twelve week session.