The Tea Ceremony
Originated in China (as much of what we look at did) but it was cultivated especially by Japan.
Technically speaking it's not an art form as such, it's a practice, a living art, if you like. But it has no written or visual aspect of it.
Tea was brought to Japan from China, right at the beginning of contact with China.
Not only as a beverage, but also a social pastime of the people of the court.
The popularity decreases, but Zen Buddhism preists at the end of the 12th century bring it back into popularity with renewed contact with China. This was because of it's health attributes - to mind and body, and as a stimulant during long mediation sessions (to keep them alert and awake). 禅 means to meditate.
Powdered tea was developed for this purpose.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, consumption spreads over all classes, and in the 14th century tea judging contests arise as a pastime amongst the samurai elite.
The display of initially primarily elite scrolls
During the 15th century rules were codified: 茶室
Based on study rooms in Zen temples. This was the appropriate place to gather for tea. The consumption of tea becomes an aesthetic practice.
The 16th century saw the development of the tea room that we see today. Tatami room (small) with a recess for displaying a single aesthetic arangement. (Flower, hanging). And maybe a recess for boiling the tea. Sometimes with a low "crawling" entranceway.
The tea room is austere, natural, rather than showing displays of wealth etc.
The wabi-cha aesthetic here - taking this to the extreme, we have what we see today.
Use native, rough textured pottery, unadorned, minimal utensils. 4.5 - 6 mats in the tea room. The room is unadorned except for the simplest of hanging or arrangement.
It's a ritualised practice of the consumption of tea for an aesthetic and spiritual experience. There's an appreciation of the objects of the objects in the room. The bamboo whisk, and the bowl etc. Each utensil is there for not only it's practical use but also it's aesthetic appreciation.
The entire process is scripted.
It's powdered tea, so it needs to be whisked.
Contemplating the tea bowl
Contemplating the flower on display.
The actual tea drinking is a miniscule amount of time compared to everything else.
There is only one bowl used, so each othe guests iff number(guests) > 1.
There is a host figure who does the preparation and the serving and the cleaning up.
Guests bring a serviette
The Wabi aesthetic - the concept of beauty associated with austereness, simplicity, poverty... more on that later.
The process is also about meditation. Practice is a key element in Zen. Not just Zazen, which is sitting mediation. Pracice itself is also viewed as a form of meditation.
Wabi - lack, lacking things, deprived, poverty-stricken.
Tea Ceremony isn't the only art form which employs it.
-Simple, unpretentious beauty.
Manifested in utensils, and the room itself.
Purity. The beauty of purity. Elemental beauty - not complicated.
Transcendant beauty, The lack of ornamentality.
Imperfect, irregular beauty.
Wooden pillars, cracks in the bowl. Bumps, etc aren't smoothed out.
We have a concept of beauty that rises from the irregularity and appreciation of natural untouched things.
things un worked by human hands.
Austere, stark beauty
Tranquility
Purity
A cold, 'withered' beauty (contrast to vivid or striking beauty - fullness of development and colour and completeness.)
Simple beauty
The tea ceremony as a spiritual practice.
Tea drinking was still around before Zen Buddhism arrived, but was re introduced in the Kamakura period by Zen Budddhist priests and monks.
The chief emphasis of Zen Buddhism - attain enlightenment through meditation
Other sects are more Salvationist like Christianity and Islam, where faith is placed in Jesus Christ / God. Whereas with Zen it is attained through contemplation. Through eradication of the self through meditation.
That can be anything from sweeping the floor, to anything really. Can be considered a form of meditation.
The tea ceremony as a spiritual practice
naturalness , irregularity, imperfection maps over the humility and harmony of the natural world.
The goal is to become to loose awareness of the self, and become one with the cosmos. It doesn't happen every time of course, but that's the goal.
[] Is there anywhere to do it in メルボルン？
Originated in China (as much of what we look at did) but it was cultivated especially by Japan.
Technically speaking it's not an art form as such, it's a practice, a living art, if you like. But it has no written or visual aspect of it.
Tea was brought to Japan from China, right at the beginning of contact with China.
Not only as a beverage, but also a social pastime of the people of the court.
The popularity decreases, but Zen Buddhism preists at the end of the 12th century bring it back into popularity with renewed contact with China. This was because of it's health attributes - to mind and body, and as a stimulant during long mediation sessions (to keep them alert and awake). 禅 means to meditate.
Powdered tea was developed for this purpose.
By the 13th and 14th centuries, consumption spreads over all classes, and in the 14th century tea judging contests arise as a pastime amongst the samurai elite.
The display of initially primarily elite scrolls
During the 15th century rules were codified: 茶室
Based on study rooms in Zen temples. This was the appropriate place to gather for tea. The consumption of tea becomes an aesthetic practice.
The 16th century saw the development of the tea room that we see today. Tatami room (small) with a recess for displaying a single aesthetic arangement. (Flower, hanging). And maybe a recess for boiling the tea. Sometimes with a low "crawling" entranceway.
The tea room is austere, natural, rather than showing displays of wealth etc.
The wabi-cha aesthetic here - taking this to the extreme, we have what we see today.
Use native, rough textured pottery, unadorned, minimal utensils. 4.5 - 6 mats in the tea room. The room is unadorned except for the simplest of hanging or arrangement.
It's a ritualised practice of the consumption of tea for an aesthetic and spiritual experience. There's an appreciation of the objects of the objects in the room. The bamboo whisk, and the bowl etc. Each utensil is there for not only it's practical use but also it's aesthetic appreciation.
The entire process is scripted.
It's powdered tea, so it needs to be whisked.
Contemplating the tea bowl
Contemplating the flower on display.
The actual tea drinking is a miniscule amount of time compared to everything else.
There is only one bowl used, so each othe guests iff number(guests) > 1.
There is a host figure who does the preparation and the serving and the cleaning up.
Guests bring a serviette
The Wabi aesthetic - the concept of beauty associated with austereness, simplicity, poverty... more on that later.
The process is also about meditation. Practice is a key element in Zen. Not just Zazen, which is sitting mediation. Pracice itself is also viewed as a form of meditation.
Wabi - lack, lacking things, deprived, poverty-stricken.
Tea Ceremony isn't the only art form which employs it.
-Simple, unpretentious beauty.
Manifested in utensils, and the room itself.
Purity. The beauty of purity. Elemental beauty - not complicated.
Transcendant beauty, The lack of ornamentality.
Imperfect, irregular beauty.
Wooden pillars, cracks in the bowl. Bumps, etc aren't smoothed out.
We have a concept of beauty that rises from the irregularity and appreciation of natural untouched things.
things un worked by human hands.
Austere, stark beauty
Tranquility
Purity
A cold, 'withered' beauty (contrast to vivid or striking beauty - fullness of development and colour and completeness.)
Simple beauty
The tea ceremony as a spiritual practice.
Tea drinking was still around before Zen Buddhism arrived, but was re introduced in the Kamakura period by Zen Budddhist priests and monks.
The chief emphasis of Zen Buddhism - attain enlightenment through meditation
Other sects are more Salvationist like Christianity and Islam, where faith is placed in Jesus Christ / God. Whereas with Zen it is attained through contemplation. Through eradication of the self through meditation.
That can be anything from sweeping the floor, to anything really. Can be considered a form of meditation.
The tea ceremony as a spiritual practice
naturalness , irregularity, imperfection maps over the humility and harmony of the natural world.
The goal is to become to loose awareness of the self, and become one with the cosmos. It doesn't happen every time of course, but that's the goal.
[] Is there anywhere to do it in メルボルン？
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