Category: Tea Ceremony

I served a bowl of tea in kimono to my friend’s friends

Photo by Author

When you are traveling, you crank up your five senses to maximum to absorb everything, like a sponge.

How about squeezing out what you have also?

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My husband and I are visiting our old friend in Vienna.  She is letting us stay with her, taking us around in the city, and introducing us to her friends.  What can we do to pay her back for her generosity?

I can’t.  Instead, can I pay it forward?

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I brought a kimono to wear it to a concert while in Vienna, but the weather was not accommodating.  I gave it up.  My friend invited her close friends over for a dinner.  Why not entertaining them in kimono?

After my friend went to work, my husband and I started planning for the dinner.  He found there is a Japanese grocery store called Nippon-ya.  Let’s get some Japanese beer.  And I can cook Japanese curry. 

We had brought a can of matcha green tea and a set of tea ceremony utensils (tea bowl, tea scoop, tea whisk) as little gifts for our friend.  I decided to use them to serve tea for her and her friends coming to the dinner.

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Improvisation of Japanese dinner and tea ceremony was a great hit.  All three Austrian women seemed to enjoy the glimpse of Japanese culture. 

It was a nice surprise for me, too. Traveling usually meant that I absorb and take as much as possible from the experience.  This trip, however, taught me that there is a joy in giving even when I’m traveling. 

You may want to try it next time you travel.

And the beneficiary was a Shogun!

Photo by Author

It’s amazing how popular Matcha green tea has become worldwide in the last several years.  Here in Seattle, it used to be available only in selected Asian markets.  Now I see so many different brands of Matcha even in the nearest grocery store!

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Here is a quiz for you!

Who brought Matcha green tea from China to Japan?  When?

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Answer: Eisai (栄西 ).  In 13th century.

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Eisai 栄西 (1141 – 1215) was a Buddhist monk who went to China to study and brought Rinzai Zen to Japan.  With Zen, he also brought the custom of drinking Matcha green tea to Japan.

He even wrote a book called Kissa Yojoki 喫茶養生記 that introduced the health benefits of drinking green tea.  Here are the 5 benefits he lists up in his book written in 1211.

1. It is a remedy for hangover
   
   Eisai recommended to the then Shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo 源実朝 to drink tea the next morning since if had too much sake.  Sanetomo successfully recovered from his hangover.
   
2. It keeps you awake
   
   The daily training of Zen monks is rigorous.  Monks wake up early, like 3:00 in the morning, clean the temple inside and out, cook their own meals.  They have only few hours of sleep every night.  By the time they practice meditation in the evening, they get so tired that it’s hard not to doze off.  Tea keeps them awake without too much of a buzz.
   
3. It relieves indigestion
   
   In his book Eisai lists up several examples of Chinese people suffering from indigestion after eating too much food who were relieved by drinking tea.
   
4. It boosts up your energy level
   
   He also mentions that tea boosts your energy level.  You feel your body is lighter and more active.
   
5. It relaxes your mental status
   
   While tea keeps you awake, it also makes you feel more relaxed.  Eisai knew that tea is not merely a stimulant.

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Japanese people are all thankful to Eisai for bringing such a wonderful drink from China!

And I’m so thankful to everyone promoting Matcha to the world and advancing its global distribution.  Without having to go all the way back to Japan, I can enjoy quite a wide variety of Matcha here in Seattle.

(Although the best ones are still hard to get unless you visit Japan!)   

Source:

喫茶養生記 – National Diet Library Digital Collections

Day 25 of 30-Day Writing Challenge

When I was coming of age, it was the social norm in Japan that a woman should become a good housewife, rather than pursue her career.  Corporations preferred to hire female graduates from two-year junior college rather than from four-year college.  They viewed those women not as their major workforce but as future wives of their loyal male employees. 

If a couple working in the same company got married, the wife would quit – that was an unwritten rule.  In return the company would pay the male employee family allowance once he got married.   (Equal Pay?  What is that?)

Ikebana and tea ceremony were two major things a future housewife was supposed to practice before getting married.   

I was a rebellious, ambitious girl.  I defied being treated as the second-class citizen.  I chose a four-year college. Kyoto University, one of the most difficult to get into.  I studied law, just because it was a male-dominant major.  I was determined to start my career on the same level as my male colleagues, not as an “office lady.”

When I was in college, my mother casually said, “why don’t you learn ikebana and tea ceremony?  Kyoto is the birthplace of both, so there should be good teachers there.”

“Hell no!” was my answer. 

Forty years later.  The 11^th image on my phone is a photo of a flower arrangement, hanging on the alcove post in a tearoom.   Now my life in Seattle revolves around ikebana and tea ceremony.

Mother, I know.  It’s a mystery to me, too.