Welcome. Nice to meet you. (she brings sweets for us to enjoy as she prepares the tea) (these are called 'wagashi') (she will now start preparing the tea) (she brings in all the utensils in order of their importance) (each movement is done with calmness, purpose and respect) (to make guests feel calm, and remind us of the four principles of tea ceremony... ...harmony, respect, purity and tranquility) (she will purify the items one by one, using this cloth) (there are so many steps which take years to learn and perfect) (this iron pot is a 'kama' & contains water heated by charcoal) (she cleans & warms the tea bowl first) please enjoy the sweets I brought you (we were too busy watching her, oops!) (now she will actually make the matcha) (1.5 scoops of green tea powder) (1 ladle of hot water per cup) (she now uses the bamboo whisk to mix thoroughly) (thorough, controlled whisking makes a wonderful consistency) in tea ceremony, the sweet is eaten before the tea is served pick up the plate & use the wooden stick to cut the sweet today I've provided you with your own plates but in larger ceremonies, you use your own utensils I gave you a small bag containing napkins & wooden sticks which you would use in the big ceremonies today you don't them, though, as you each have your own. please feel free to eat it all! the sweetness will give a great taste when you drink the tea those are the bags containing items for big ceremonies. You don't need them now. bring your knees closer to the tea, around here. we drink the tea one person at time use your left hand to pick up, right hand to hold, left hand to put in front of your knees now slide yourself back. Good! Now please take your tea. Right to pick up, left to hold, and put it between you both Now, say 'excuse me for going first'
"Excuse me for going first!" now pick it up with your right hand, hold with your left, right to put in front of your knees. and now say 'chodai itashimasu' (I'm grateful for receiving this) right to lift the bowl, left to hold The bowl's design is facing you but don't drink from this point. Instead, turn the bowl with your hands, 90 degrees, so 2 turns of 45 degrees with your left hand holding it, use your right to turn the bowl anti-clockwise turn once... twice...so the design is on the side. Good! Now you can drink! Take your time & enjoy! (Do I drink it all?)
Yes, all. we drink thin tea & thick tea in slightly different ways. Thin tea we drink one both per person. Often what we see in movies or TV is people drinking thick tea thick tea uses twice the powder of today's. It's very thick!! Not light and easy to drink like this one. As such, one bowl of thick tea is shared. The host recommends how many people share, usually between three to five. After finishing the tea, turn the bowl so the design faces you. Then put it in front of your knees. Take a good look at the whole design
(as a way of appreciating it) then pick it up with your elbows on your lap, to see underneath usually, potters put their initials on the bottom, so looking is a way of recognising their efforts and art. Then put it next to you. (to me): please check the bowl too. Put it infront of your knees We always use three hands; right, left, right. This makes it more polite. Have a good look at it. We call this 'haiken' (to look with care) That's right. Now, bring the bowl forward, around here. Remember, 3 hands!
That's right. now you can come forward. right hand to pick up; left to hold Now, turn the bowl anti-clockwise, once... twice. yeah, almost! now your right hand to put it here so the design faces me. Thank you very much,
you can go back now. (she now cleanses the bowl for me to use) (she disposes the water in a pan out of guests' sight) Ok, it's ready. You can come forward now. Yes, like that. Use your right hand to pick up... yes, like that. Left hand to hold...
right hand to put down. Then slide yourself back. Use your fists to push yourself, yes, like that. pick it up with right, pass to the left & put in front of you. Then say, 'chodai itashimasu'
"I'm grateful to receive this" Good. Now right to pick up, left to hold, turn twice. Make the left in the front. (I'm doing it all wrong but she's so patient!!) Then, drink (phew!!) Yummy! (Matcha is amazing!) The sweet wagashi is a great match with the tea, right?! Some ask, is it OK to eat the sweet before the tea is ready?! But that's the way for tea ceremony, because tea is the main thing. So the sweet comes first, and then we can focus on the tea! It's the yummiest way to fully enjoy the flavours of both! Ok, so now, let's put it in position. Turn twice with your right. And put it down in front of you. Good. Bring yourself forward ...a little more ;) Pick it up, left to hold, right to turn the bowl's design to face me Using 2 turns. Yes, like that. Then put it here. Around here (points to exact area) Now slide forward Yes, like that! (Finally, I'm getting it!!) Now slide yourself back. (There are so many rules but it's fun & relaxing to learn.) (Now she is cleaning the bowl after I drank from it) We've finished, so please invite me to complete the ceremony. "Thank you, please complete the ceremony" The guests traditionally invite the host to finish the ceremony this way So now I'll go ahead and finish. I'll put away all the utensils, too. (The final part is cleaning everything in front of guests... ...although it's thoroughly cleaned afterwards, too) (She pours fresh water into the iron pot, the same amount as it was before the ceremony began) (Everything is put back exactly as we found it) Please take out the cloth from the bag I gave you at the start Like this Hold it on this fold (shows me hers) Put it in your left palm, and open it. With the top corner, do this (copy me) Then, from the top, smooth it into a triangle Then turn it to the side... fold like this Hold it at this point with your left hand Yes, like that! Very good. Then here. With only your left hand, tuck it into your obi (belt) You don't have an obi (belt), that's ok, this is just the usual step. The cloth usually stays here. hold it around here. hold it in place with your right hand just pretend it's being held there by the obi So, position the cloth like this Around here, place your thumb, like this Then fold it upwards then fold, so it's folded into 3 and remove the whole thing (from the obi belt) (lol I'm lost) So you see these 2 corner folds? Take the one on the top. Then holding just this corner, release your left hand. Then smooth it into a triangle and turn to the side turn the top to make an inversion make a sound. We call this sound 'chiri uchi' Back to original position using right hand only Take the middle part of the triangle and fold it in half (her patience is on the next level) Here. Yes, good! Then, grasp. This protruding edge... hold it with your thumb. Yes, like that! It's folded in 3 now, so fold this in half again So now you see only half of the 3-fold Good learner. Then here, fold it around your palm, into a square When it's square, hold with your right and & remove your left twist your left thumb down, holding it with your right hand. And when it's like that, remove your left hand Fold it in half and hold with your right hand Pick up the tea powder pot Yes, like that. With your left hand. Let me do it with you, excuse me. Pick up the tea powder pot with your left hand The way to do this is to think of hiragana shape for 'KO' こ on the top, left to right on the bottom, left to right then over the top. Then put it down, on the right Put the cloth upside down in your left palm when you let go, you see 2 folds... Of the 2 folds, ,take the upper one and release your left hand (let the cloth drop) smooth into a triangle & turn (like before) The second time we do it, we don't make a sound you don't need to make a sound this time! (omg seriously) like this and grasp... grab it here... yes, like that!! grab it tight keep the cloth taut in half A bit more like this. fold in the centre, around here Ah yes, like that! Good. Then grab. keeping the cloth tight. then fold like this then fold into a square around your palm and when it's square, hold with your right & release your left this part, fold up & hold like this lastly, remove your thumb. Very good! Then hold with your left hand & pick up the teaspoon pick it up from the top & flip your wrist to bring towards you wipe along the top and under sides only from top to bottom and back to the top next on the sides along and back then once more on the top and under sides and here, remove gently from the left Yes, like that! Now place it on top of the tea powder pot Then place the whisk next to it Great! You handle the items very nicely. Oh it's great, great. Really wonderful. (she's so kind & complimentary, even though I made so many mistakes!) (delicate hand movements are very important in this practice) (she wants to ask if I have a hobby to practice gentle hand movements...) oh, never mind. Let's do one more practice. Let's put this down for now. Next, we'll do a practice called 'chasen toshi' (purify the whisk) we'll do as I did when making tea earlier. Let's begin. First, take the whisk (chasen) Then, put the whisk at 2 o'clock in the bowl twist your wrist around the bowl and back the same way, and release on the side. Hold with your left hand with your thumb on the top, lift the whisk up when you lift, rotate your wrist then do it again then put down. Like this. Lift up... Yes! Then one more time. Thumb on the top... Lift up... and twist When we've done this three times, we WHISK! Lastly, do you know hiragana (Japanese alphabet?) (me): a little! We write the shape of hiragana 'NO'の in the bowl Thumb on the top side, and release Very well done. pick up the bowl hold either side and rotate twice throw the water away (there would usually be a pot here) hold it like this and put it down with your right. Great. Very very good! That was great, wasn't it? You should learn to do tea ceremony! You're really good. I'm quite surprised! Well, seeing as you're so good, let's make a real cup of tea! Let's see! We'll make your husband another cup. the tea spoon... yes that's ok. Let's start with folding the orange cloth, the chakin. (she guides me through the steps again as I've already forgotten!!) Very good! So let me get the tea things, please wait first, line your knees right up to this point now that everything is prepared, we bow to begin. Here, all the equipment is ready to use so let's do what we practiced, starting with the orange cloth get the cloth with your left hand thumb at this point... (She guides me once again through all the steps for how to prepare the cloth before we purify the utensils) (the 'chiri uchi' pop sound!) (she's guides me through every single step, complimenting me all the way!) (Now to purify the tea powder pot) Now we'll purify the tea spoon (!) (Once again she guides me so well, with such patience!) (She shows me the correct place to put the cloth, out of guests sight.) (Now onto purifying the bamboo whisk) Bring the bowl a little closer to you So next step...we're going to prepare to use the ladle. pick up the white hemp cloth (for keeping the bowl clean) Put it on top of the lid, over there. So the right way of taking the ladle (hishaku) is with palm up (she guides me again...!) So lift with your palm, then hold like a pencil. Like this. You have a go. Now you can take some water from the pot. one ladle and then here (in the bowl) and pour it in... return to the pot, and put it down, like it was. now let's clean the whisk in the water,
as you did very well before (again, the steps for purifying the whisk- 'chasen toshi') the whisk will soften slightly after being in the water and lastly, we'll draw hiragana 'no' の in the bowl so draw 'no' の and remove the whisk like this... yes, like that! Very good. Now put the whisk here. Lift the bowl with both hands, rotate the bowl twice to warm the bowl hold with your left hand pour the unnecessary water into this pot (out of guests' sight). take the white hemp cloth use it to clean the bowl we didn't practice this bit yet, hehe! lift up the white cloth & turn your wrist put it over the bowl's edge. Very good! wipe around the bowl's edge with the cloth adjust your left hand. Good! about three times. Very nicely done! then remove the white cloth & rotate your wrist hold the middle as you purify it- left, right & centre excellent! Now let it go hold the bowl with your right, & it put down in front of your knees Nicely done. Now pick up the white cloth & put it over there. Excellent. You're a quick learner. pick up the spoon, pick up the tea powder pot with your left now hold the teaspoon with your right hand in a way so you can also pick up the tea powder lid yes! Put the lid down by the bowl with your right, just like that so we use one and a half spoonfuls of tea powder a generous spoonful... bring your hand nearer the bowl Very good, that's great. one spoon... yes... one more... that's good. tap the teaspoon on the side of the bowl with your right use these fingers of your right hand (guides me to hold it perfectly) with 3 fingers, pick up the lid and put the lid on the powder pot. left hand to put the powder down ... and the spoon on top. Excellent! So let's put in hot water again. Take the ladle lift and then hold (like a pencil) (eventually I get it!) well done. One spoonful return a small amount to the black pot hehe, almost (I didn't leave any lol) well done, you're doing a good job! so take the tea whisk, support the bowl with your left, & whisk! Nicely done! whisk a little more. Keep going. lastly, draw the 'no' shape (の) flip your wrist like this.Good! remove from the bowl like this let go with your left hand & put here take the tea with your right, hold with your left right to put down, here. Slide yourself to face the bowl. Yes, like that! pick up with your right & pass to your left then turn twice, so the front faces you two times. Great! then put it here. Excellent! (her kindly ignoring all my mistakes, being super kind about my first time attempts!!) please slide towards the bowl & bring it in front of your knees Very good. Put it down around here &slide yourself back put it right in front of your knees & say 'chodai itashimasu' "chodai itashimasu" (Im grateful to receive this" turn the bowl twice (anti-clockwise), so the front faces you now, help yourself. ah, delicious!
(her): it's delicious isn't it?! it might not be too warm, but the tea was made well. Is this your first time at a tea ceremony? (him): yes, my first time,
(her): oh really?! Many native Japanese people don't really do these traditions. It's done more for experience, not daily habit. ok, so put it around here & slide forward turn the bowl twice so the design faces the tea maker twice (once... twice) first time, move 90 degrees, then once more so the front faces out.. and put it down. Excellent. then slide back typically at this point, we'd clear it all away... but anyway You did so wel! I think you could learn it very quickly! (She's so kind, and so enthusiastic about tea ceremony!) Such a great experience.)
