More tea ceremony videos please! Somehow it’s pretty difficult to find detailed explanations of the choreography and etiquette as well as the ideology behind it (in English at least).
Can oblige! Detailed explanation of the temae and its choreography are the domain of a sensei which I'll avoid touching on (for now...🙃), but I'll happily make some videos about chanoyu, it's history, the different schools, the ideologies, etc.
@@tezumitea thanks to the pandemic there were some official Urasenke videos released about basic temae (preparation before temae, ryakubon, hakobi, unohana chabako). Have you seen them?
Great video! I also would love to watch more videos about tea ceremony! I would love to learn how to do it properly and of course, everything about all the tools, history, different schools and all! So very interesting!
a resounding yes for a series on chawan! it's really beautiful to hear the explanations of the utensils, they are all a work of art. thanks for helping me appreciate these more deeply.
Otsukaresamadeshita. Thank you very much! Great video material about tea utensils. I would be happy to know more about interesting differences among tea schools. You noticed some things, but it will be great to go deeper on this subject. Yoroshiku.
The schools, their histories and their differences are something I'll definitely go into more detail on! I practise Ueda Sōko-ryū which is a much smaller school and slightly older school than the more popular San-senke schools
Not really, the closest is Pearl Among the Clouds, a translation into English (by my sensei) of our grandmaster's distillation of Ueda-ryu philosophy onto everyday life. Definitely a good read. My sensei is also working on translating the official Ueda-ryu website into English (i'm helping a tiny bit!), but his site also contains a lot of good info: www.uedasokochanoyu.com/ and has the book :)
18:00 水指 is read "mizusashi" just like you said. Although, the second kanji "sashi" originally means "finger ", it also has the meaning "to put in", comparable to the same concept of "ire". You really cracked me up at "water finger".😂 Anyway, I love what you are doing.❤
Thank you for making this video! Are there specific matcha-wan for special occasions? Should a raku chawan only be used for making koicha in a tea ceremony?
Yes, there are! Tenmoku chawan (used atop a tenmoku-dai, as seen in the intro) is used for serving nobles or other high-ranking guests, but also for ritual Kencha offerings to the Buddha as well as for offerings to the deceased. The preferred chawan vary by individual chajin's tastes and the aesthetic principles of the school they practise, but generally more 'wabi' chawan (e.g. Raku, Ido, etc.) are used for koicha while the more decorated bowls (such as painted Kyo-yaki chawan) are used for usucha. But this is less of a hard rule and more of a general practice.
out of curiosity, is there any precedence for people using the spring chagama year round? it was my most expensive purchase and i dont think i can afford to buy the ro version lol. also, i cant seem to get the curls out of the tines of my chasen, no matter how much i soak and use the stand/shaper... is this a quality issue? one last question, i live in the uk, i've looked for electric heaters for my chagama, but the ones i've found look old and i may need an adapter for, i've been settling for shisha discs on ashes for the time being. do you know of any suppliers of electric chagama heaters that are both safe and suitable for uk plugs?
Good question! Historically, the furo and furogama was the only type of kama before the rise of wabicha in the 1500s (the adaptation of the traditional Japanese irori (囲炉裏) sunken hearth into the ro for tea is a very wabi practice). So the furo style is seen as the older and more formal setting for the kama (as this is how it came from Song Dynasty China and how it was originally used with the daisu, the most formal tea arrangement). In short: absolutely! You can always move the furo to the centre of the mat (naka-oki) during the ro season. Normally this is an october-only arrangement, bringing the fire closer to the guests, a sort of halfway transition to the ro. But, it works as a good substitute for a ro setup. As for the chasen, sometimes they don't unfurl all the way, especially is the bamboo is thicker. For the non-shin style shapes, this is just part of how they're shaped and they'll tend to keep this shape longer. Japan is 100v and shares the same plug as the 115v US system so any suitable step-down transformer (240to 100v) would work. Buying an old heater and combining it with a transformer might be cheaper than the brand new converted 240v ones from Tablin store
Damn, it's interesting how complex the tradition of the tea ceremony is. I just have a, perhaps fundemental, question... What is the purpose of the tea ceremony? Is it some kind of celebration of something or just a fancy way of drinking tea?
Good question that I'll probably address in a video dedicated to the practice. Tea Ceremony/chanoyu began as a sort of fusion of Buddhist temples tea rituals and popular 'tea parties' and in many ways still is those two things. It's both a meditative practice tied to zen Buddhism but was also a way for the wealthy (merchants, samurai, nobles, business moguls in the early 20th century) to host social events, show off their expensive artistic wares, and prove that they are cultured. It's also remained an outlet for artistic expression, especially as a form of contemporary art making commentary on the world (Rikyu and Oribe were definitely making artistic and political statements through tea in the 1500s)
The small opening was a feature designed to minimise oxidation. A chaire is used to store matcha much like a natsume, but filling it might require more care or the assistance of a funnel. Like any other container, matcha can be scooped from it, but pouring tea out of a chaire is also standard practice. Usually, in the context of a tea gathering, the amount of matcha put into a chaire is measured beforehand (enough for all of the guests) so that it can be poured into the bowl
To my knowledge there are no English books on how to make them, only a handful in Japanese. Today, most shifuku in Japan are made by a group, each member handling one task (division of labour) so the knowledge is also dispersed. My friend Kyle Whittington of Studio Shifuku makes them all himself (including custom braiding the himo/cord to the customer's instructions). He's very skilled amd a wealth of information
とても素敵です！このように紹介してくださり、ありがとうございます！
More tea ceremony videos please! Somehow it’s pretty difficult to find detailed explanations of the choreography and etiquette as well as the ideology behind it (in English at least).
Can oblige! Detailed explanation of the temae and its choreography are the domain of a sensei which I'll avoid touching on (for now...🙃), but I'll happily make some videos about chanoyu, it's history, the different schools, the ideologies, etc.
@@tezumitea thanks to the pandemic there were some official Urasenke videos released about basic temae (preparation before temae, ryakubon, hakobi, unohana chabako).
Have you seen them?
Excellent presentation, David. Thank you for the explanations of the more esoteric pieces (defined as those I do not have! 😀)
It's great to see Hyougo Mono being appreciated
Great video! I also would love to watch more videos about tea ceremony! I would love to learn how to do it properly and of course, everything about all the tools, history, different schools and all! So very interesting!
a resounding yes for a series on chawan! it's really beautiful to hear the explanations of the utensils, they are all a work of art. thanks for helping me appreciate these more deeply.
Wonderful presentation on tea ceremony tools. Helps to expand my knowledge of Japanese culture
Would love to watch a demonstration of a tea ceremony from start to finish, maybe with a POV from the guest perspective 🍵
I love this. So interesting. +1 vote for a history of chawan!
3:45 Thank you for showing the anime title. :) Never heard of this one, will check it out.
Hey David, that was an excellent video again. Thanks for the detailed explanations! I could probably listen for hours, if you decide to do so😁
Otsukaresamadeshita.
Thank you very much! Great video material about tea utensils.
I would be happy to know more about interesting differences among tea schools. You noticed some things, but it will be great to go deeper on this subject.
Yoroshiku.
The schools, their histories and their differences are something I'll definitely go into more detail on! I practise Ueda Sōko-ryū which is a much smaller school and slightly older school than the more popular San-senke schools
@@tezumitea is there any books in English about Ueda Soko and his way of tea?
Not really, the closest is Pearl Among the Clouds, a translation into English (by my sensei) of our grandmaster's distillation of Ueda-ryu philosophy onto everyday life. Definitely a good read. My sensei is also working on translating the official Ueda-ryu website into English (i'm helping a tiny bit!), but his site also contains a lot of good info: www.uedasokochanoyu.com/ and has the book :)
18:00 水指 is read "mizusashi" just like you said. Although, the second kanji "sashi" originally means "finger ", it also has the meaning "to put in", comparable to the same concept of "ire". You really cracked me up at "water finger".😂 Anyway, I love what you are doing.❤
relatedly, a common misspelling is 水差
Delicious 😋😊
yes you should make a series lol
Thank you for making this video!
Are there specific matcha-wan for special occasions? Should a raku chawan only be used for making koicha in a tea ceremony?
Yes, there are! Tenmoku chawan (used atop a tenmoku-dai, as seen in the intro) is used for serving nobles or other high-ranking guests, but also for ritual Kencha offerings to the Buddha as well as for offerings to the deceased.
The preferred chawan vary by individual chajin's tastes and the aesthetic principles of the school they practise, but generally more 'wabi' chawan (e.g. Raku, Ido, etc.) are used for koicha while the more decorated bowls (such as painted Kyo-yaki chawan) are used for usucha. But this is less of a hard rule and more of a general practice.
out of curiosity, is there any precedence for people using the spring chagama year round? it was my most expensive purchase and i dont think i can afford to buy the ro version lol. also, i cant seem to get the curls out of the tines of my chasen, no matter how much i soak and use the stand/shaper... is this a quality issue? one last question, i live in the uk, i've looked for electric heaters for my chagama, but the ones i've found look old and i may need an adapter for, i've been settling for shisha discs on ashes for the time being. do you know of any suppliers of electric chagama heaters that are both safe and suitable for uk plugs?
Good question! Historically, the furo and furogama was the only type of kama before the rise of wabicha in the 1500s (the adaptation of the traditional Japanese irori (囲炉裏) sunken hearth into the ro for tea is a very wabi practice). So the furo style is seen as the older and more formal setting for the kama (as this is how it came from Song Dynasty China and how it was originally used with the daisu, the most formal tea arrangement). In short: absolutely! You can always move the furo to the centre of the mat (naka-oki) during the ro season. Normally this is an october-only arrangement, bringing the fire closer to the guests, a sort of halfway transition to the ro. But, it works as a good substitute for a ro setup.
As for the chasen, sometimes they don't unfurl all the way, especially is the bamboo is thicker. For the non-shin style shapes, this is just part of how they're shaped and they'll tend to keep this shape longer.
Japan is 100v and shares the same plug as the 115v US system so any suitable step-down transformer (240to 100v) would work. Buying an old heater and combining it with a transformer might be cheaper than the brand new converted 240v ones from Tablin store
@@tezumitea thank you so much for the in depth explanations, very informative and helpful! have a lovely weekend!
Damn, it's interesting how complex the tradition of the tea ceremony is. I just have a, perhaps fundemental, question... What is the purpose of the tea ceremony? Is it some kind of celebration of something or just a fancy way of drinking tea?
Good question that I'll probably address in a video dedicated to the practice. Tea Ceremony/chanoyu began as a sort of fusion of Buddhist temples tea rituals and popular 'tea parties' and in many ways still is those two things. It's both a meditative practice tied to zen Buddhism but was also a way for the wealthy (merchants, samurai, nobles, business moguls in the early 20th century) to host social events, show off their expensive artistic wares, and prove that they are cultured. It's also remained an outlet for artistic expression, especially as a form of contemporary art making commentary on the world (Rikyu and Oribe were definitely making artistic and political statements through tea in the 1500s)
@tezumitea thanks a lot for the reply!
How do you use a Chaire? It looks inconvenient to use with such a small opening 😅
The small opening was a feature designed to minimise oxidation. A chaire is used to store matcha much like a natsume, but filling it might require more care or the assistance of a funnel. Like any other container, matcha can be scooped from it, but pouring tea out of a chaire is also standard practice. Usually, in the context of a tea gathering, the amount of matcha put into a chaire is measured beforehand (enough for all of the guests) so that it can be poured into the bowl
Its very hard to find info on shifuku, and even harder to find English books on sewing them. I would love to learn more!
To my knowledge there are no English books on how to make them, only a handful in Japanese. Today, most shifuku in Japan are made by a group, each member handling one task (division of labour) so the knowledge is also dispersed. My friend Kyle Whittington of Studio Shifuku makes them all himself (including custom braiding the himo/cord to the customer's instructions). He's very skilled amd a wealth of information