It shows you how a formal tea gathering is conducted.
Photo by Chado Urasenke Tankokai Seattle Association
“What is Japanese Tea Ceremony?”
I don’t know how many times I have tried to answer this question in a short blog post, and each time I have failed miserably.
No matter how I start the sentence, I always give up explaining the whole aspects of tea ceremony. My writing ability is just not mature enough to condense it in short sentences or even paragraphs.
Fortunately, Medium allows me to post as many articles as I wish. No page limits, no rigid rules on how long or how short each article should be. I can include photos or even videos to supplement my lack of vocabulary or literary expression.
In tea ceremony, people gather to enjoy a bowl of tea. There are range of formalities of how to conduct such a tea gathering.
The most formal tea gathering includes serving a light meal, sake, sweets, and two types of Matcha green tea. It takes about 3-4 hours to conduct the whole process.
Our purpose to practice tea ceremony is fundamentally to conduct this formal tea gathering in the most enjoyable manner.
Our tea ceremony study group, Chado Urasenke Tankokai Seattle Association, created a video titled “Invitation to Chakai.”
Chakai (茶会) means a tea gathering in Japanese.
This 25-minute video describes how a typical formal tea gathering progresses in a condensed format.
By watching this video, hopefully you’ll get the idea of how a formal chakai is conducted.
Enjoy the video! If you have any question, please feel free to comment.