Tea ceremony with bush clover 2016/10/08

Last Sunday, autumn tea ceremony was held in Hino city which locates in the western suburbs of Tokyo.

The tea room was simply decorated with carefully selected seasonal tools of such as kettle, bowl, tea container, incense container, tea ladle and so on.

There was a hanging scroll in the alcove. The day’s scroll means “only one particular occasion of pleasant meeting”.  There were also elegantly arranged red and white bush clovers in a refined flower vase made from a bamboo.

 

The ceremony was opened at 9:30 and last for 6 hours. Each ceremony, which took around 40 minutes to complete, received 18 guests.

The host and an assistant served tea to a main guest and second main guest, while other members in the backyard made and served tea to 16 other guests.

 

Guests enjoyed delicious Japanese cake and tea, and also they eagerly appreciated carefully selected tools. It was for their pleasure and also a kind of courtesy to the host who made perfect selection of the day.

 

To prepare the room, a host has to take such things into consideration as season, type of guests, aim of ceremony and so on. Total arrangements of the tea room including flowers and a scroll together with the selection of tools show intention and ability of a host. Therefore a host is required to have sound full understanding of composite Japanese cultures. There is a kind of mute conversation between a host and guests through total arrangements.

 

That day we received 150 guests in total by 9 ceremonies for more than 6 hours. It was not easy job to serve so many people without pause. We enjoyed the day fully but were tired.

150527E7　tea room in autumn