Tea: The Story of a Leaf - Episode 3 - Making Tea

[Music] lovely for lovers of tea one sip one taste is enough to tell you about its long journey from the tree to the cup some even say you can learn about the person who made the tea because learning how to make tea requires discipline coupled with a respect for technique and tradition a calmness of spirit and purpose is also required one that will bring to each cup a certain skill or gongfu as the Chinese call it the act of making tea can train the spirit and traces of the spirit emerge in the tea when its search of this spirit we need to discover how the traditions of tea making have changed over the centuries we follow a Chinese devotee of the Japanese tea ceremony and encounter a man in Hong Kong who has recreated the Tong dynasty tea ceremony using party from Yunnan province how did the two traditions of drinking tea the Chinese and the Japanese diverged and what do they still have in common from the martial art of kendo to the finest tea houses in Japan the ambition is not finery but equilibrium harmony and simplicity green tea in a tea bowl represents man and nature in a way that few things can least of all finery from this it's a short journey to discover that some people find personal fulfillment on tea and also seek to improve the lives of others with this satisfaction both in China and Japan let's find out who they are [Music] drinking tea is simple [Music] drinking tea is also complicated it took the Chinese over 1,000 years to go from something simple to something complicated [Music] it also took over 1,000 years to revert from complex to simple [Music] [Music] [Music] I have a teacher of TC i--'s Japanese tea ceremony in Beijing there are many traditional snacks in Beijing the suitable is dessert Japanese tea ceremony Jia sometimes I go like someone else Jiang nan Mons hometown is inject young and she grew up with the fragrance of tea 17 years ago she studied Japanese in Beijing Foreign Studies University and encountered tea ceremony for the first time after she graduated she went all the way to Japan to study it since then she has become a professional tea ceremony master okay for the first a ticket let's bow down and now Disney sit up when you take the four coaster out from your clothes hold the corner of the cloth like this coil the cloth with three fingers of your left hand gestures in Japanese tea ceremony but it's too strong you're late but I think that's just what we lacked then your right hand this can make sure that you can sit up straight Japanese tea ceremony involves complicated and long gestures districtís tea ceremony lasts for four hours before matches in fact his content the appearance of presents she's dated his brushes you can't possibly feel nothing at all new EPM crash off the angle or the height of the hands in every gesture is strictly regulated it must be done a certain way [Music] matcha brewed with tea powder is drunken Japanese tea ceremony the key step in tea ceremony is to first stir the teeth thoroughly with a tea whisk this is called 10 cha you send a message to the other party through your body language nowadays tea ceremony has come to represent traditional Japanese culture this ancient way of drinking pictures pertain many stylistic traces of the tongue and sugar dynasties jung jun-hwan is not the only one searching for traces of the tang dynasty from a bowl of tea in hong kong tea expert iya Ranji attempts to recreate the Tong tea ceremony in another way we can say Hong Kongers long tea and you can say they're not picky about what you do it most tea houses of Chinese restaurants tea isn't the most important thing one does keep track if they use a different tea customer will ask why the tea is in the same location booyah over 20 years ago you're wrong dear fell in love with tea ceremony while researching tea kettles he runs a tea house in hong kong park and is one of the few to promote traditional tea culture in hong kong I think brewing Chinese Tigers are coming from other than enjoyable but sometimes it may be dual x2 casual - might I look at Japanese tea ceremony but if I see how they perform every step meticulously don't think whether the Chinese you have a tea ceremony to me into doing the Tong tea ceremony I just have no time until Tong dynasty was essentially the era where all the readings were lay down that in particular you you wrote a book called an elastic of tea inhibit the glass cuz he recorded to the title and he should be made but it falls under FACA I find the flavor similar to national TV and realistic or green tea organized as a base ingredient for my tea lights always needle TF from the Tang Dynasty was mostly made into tea cakes a royalty set from the Tang Dynasty was once found in the underground palace in fom on temple Xiang XI urine jeez friend borrowed a replica set and invited him to perform a Tong tea ceremony the first step is to process the tea cake first we have to bake the tea cake until the fragrance comes out was young then we'll grind it into a powder Reinert here looks like some good game middle I wouldn't mind it even the grinder is fun and games but that's how we'll do it young as the tea will be well ground a nice sweep there's also a box here me my next to the box is a space just push it back and forth and the unit out to align the key in Tong tea ceremony is pan frying and cooking we actually use an iron pot over the water as you kick off very important where the water comes in count Mikula tamale light is sweet secondly the temperature is very young or and young if the water is too hot to go for this water and to lower the water temperature that young [Music] leave the water over there is going to be industrious al Qaeda puts all your ginger and cinnamon and water young we didn't you this flavor may differ see what if we let me treat it now because we have improved a lot on the art of May 20 and the fragrance and flavor out the tea itself should be much better than the first something as the bee and boy [Music] this is how t always every person has his or her own interpretation so you put the you either phone card of course we cannot say one must drink tea would way they did in the caucus but I can't help feeling that casually today we can also learn about the origins of the culture of drinking tea and the original spirit in it gonna go and ID kings [Music] the origin of Tonti lies deep in the mountains [Music] every year at Qing Ming festival the to tell people from uncie would honor the tea garden or opera this tradition started as early as the Tang Dynasty a [Music] young to Xian boy Xu Lai grew up in the Angi Canyon today he and his mother are visiting his newborn nephew according to to gr custom when there are visitors oil tea must be served oil tea has a long history legend has it someone once tried to deep-fry tea leaves and then cook him in soup to treat illnesses brought on by humid heat in the body back in the age of poverty and hardship tea was once part of New Year's Eve dinner as oil soup in place of meat like peppercorn or salt what's the soup had all the fried ingredients of the bone so you can eat it all it's very rich in flavor [Laughter] [Music] tea was the Chinese people's most primal way in sampling tea unchi is surrounded by mountains compared to the world outside the mountains time seems to pass slower here ancient customs are retained here more easily shilling likes the taste of oil tea very much but he can't express it in words my son shilling fell ill just before you turn to go to streptomycin shot this isn't poisoned from it losing his heritage I have two sons younger one already has his own child link is delighted to have this muni and visits her often to come now my greatest wish is for shilling to find a partner and have his own family [Music] one year the local government subsidized a teacher tried to recruit t work so he went to learn to make tea what shilling learnt is the craft of steamed green tea it gives the tea a pure green color and a refreshing delightful texture [Music] using steam to kill oxidase activity only takes 40 seconds after steaming the tea leaves are first needed over the tea dryer at 50 to 80 degrees Celsius without the hands touching the dryer Bridgend are Bridgend on then the tea leaves are shaped and brightened [Music] after an hour and a half of manual processing the tea gives out a refreshing fragrance and becomes pine-needle shaved this is you Lottie from unchi Tamara Tamara savage and Edna Sebastian Tina [Music] new booty is an essential companion to the people of unchi during leisure time in a cup of steamed green tea is a flavor from the Tang Dynasty that the people of unchi still savor today [Music] in the town of unchi at the foot of the mountains Xu Ling has another job making buns shillings boss wanted to hire him to make tea but I objected to him going I told him to make yeah it feels safer to have him by my side when he makes tea I sometimes get scared he'll be hurt by the machinery but he insisted on going making wasn't making tea features like I am shooting a you Lu tea master I can hear the voice of you Lu in my heart he just likes it there's no explanation for him [Music] [Music] Japan's Shizuoka tea is also famous for steaming and hand kneading every spring the tea masters gather together to study their skills [Music] the tea masters are using the most simple method to inspect the quality of the Shizuoka tea by piling up the needle-shaped tea leaves the higher the pile the more identical the shape of the leaves are and the fuller the needle shape is [Music] celebrating the coming of the T season is a vital ceremony every year for the people of Shizuoka [Music] the more you chew family have grown tea for a living for generations 20 years ago mrs. Marucci married in dishes awoke a--from Tokyo now their children are all grown up and only the couple's to live on the tea plantation since 2002 the more YouTube family's tea has been selected to be sent to the royal family for every first tea harvest in every household the neighbors will come over and help the more you cheese tea plantation is on a hill not far from their home most of the Shizuoka tea is grown on slopes and hills and it makes up almost half of the green tea produced in Japan [Music] all those helping to pick teachings are old people the first date I was worried they wouldn't come but everyone came in smiling and saying good morning it make me happier to see them so happy [Music] everyone gets you through each day see here's the most important thing when the tea picker said happily that they would come again tomorrow gonna be happy to [Music] every spring mrs. Moore Yugi and the tea growers of Shizuoka come to China with the best T of the year to be offered to the forefather of Japanese tea ceremony jin shan temple in new hung dirt young [Music] in the Song Dynasty large numbers of Japanese monks traveled to jing shan temple in china in search of enlightenment today among the 24 sects of japanese n18 originated from jin shan temple seated meditation is everyday homework for a Zen monk in the dimly lit Zen room it is very easy to doze off no one wants to be rapped on the shoulder by the inspecting monk due to dozing off monks discovered a long time ago that drinking tea gives a refreshing boost thus drinking a bowl of tea before meditating became part of the homework all right everybody please enjoy the tea mrs. Maura Yugi and the tea growers of Shizuoka are here to pay their respects to the Chinese and Japanese monks who were brought together by Zen and tea all those years ago the monks of jing shan and the Song Dynasty created a complete ritual of jing shan tea ceremony on the foundation of ten cha the tea ceremony has a fixed setting equipment and run down for 10 cha this 10 cha ritual was brought back by the japanese monks to japan in its entirety the various sects of Japanese tea ceremony mostly developed from the foundation of this jing shan tea ceremony the tension era moni's from the Song Dynasty can hardly be found anymore in today's China however it isn't completely lost [Music] 2,700 kilometers from jingshan temple in bayou county sichuan the highest altitude is 5700 meters it is only 900 kilometers from the provincial capital of chengdu but it takes three days to reach by car temple and po deep Bayou County is the temple with the most history for the Ning ma tradition in the compote of Aryan region a unique offering by fire is being carried out here the people believe that fire will take this food and tea to their family in another world the morning homework of the monks of conto temple include having a bowl of butter tea [Music] buttered tea and her PO is drunk differently from that in other Tibetan regions before making the tea the tea cake must be ground into powder in the mail then it is brewed in water the tea that was consumed daily in the Song Dynasty was tea powder the tea was prepared with a tea whisk and in her palm this tool was replaced by a Tibetan wooden cylinder [Music] the people of hope Oh believe their ancestors were weapon craftsmen who worked for kinga's our modern Japanese tea ceremony is influenced by the Song Dynasty in China poetry books paintings and music are all soul mates to tea there is a tea house near Kennin temple in Kyoto Japan its owner is tsukamoto heihachiro descendant of Japan's traditional meditative music on shakuhachi tsukamoto started playing the shakuhachi when he was six and is a zen practitioner shakuhachi is his way of training today tsukamoto has been invited to Kenan temple to be accompanist for a tea ceremony the guests for the ceremony are from jing shan temple in china the jing shan tea ceremony from the song dynasty may not exist anymore but the yotsugi Shirataki derived from the jing shan tea ceremony has been preserved in japan yup so gashira refers to the reception of guests in Chinese Zen with four main guests each guest brings eight accompanying guests the host will first serve each person in specific order a ten moku bowl with tea powder and a snack box then with a tea whisk and cleansing bottle the host will add water and prepare the tea for each person [Music] Zen is interconnected in spirit there is N&T and said in my playing the shakuhachi related to saying everything miss tsukamoto comes to China twice every year to teach a class and take apprentices his classes have always been free and he custom makes a shikaka for each of his students fifteen years ago tsukamoto went to China to learn breathing techniques in playing traditional music his teacher asked him to spread the art of shakuhachi to Japan Sakamoto kept his promise and his earliest student has already opened the dojo branch in China [Music] Sakamoto like tea is evidence of the cultural exchange between China and Japan the first people to bring the seeds of tea back to Japan or monks it was also monks who made the Japanese fall in love with tea in the early southern Song Dynasty the monk base I came to China twice to study the culture of Zen tea ceremony after Assad brought tea seeds back to Japan Japan finally started to grow tea trees extensively he was later revered as the forefather of tea and Japanese tea ceremony was thus branded with song traditions with the downfall of the Song Dynasty cultural exchange between China and Japan diminished and the tea ceremonies of both countries started to develop in different directions respectively Kamakura is the hometown of Japanese samurai the activity Yabusame became popular in the 12th century and has been preserved to this day reminding the people of Kamakura not to forget the martial spirit of the past apart from martial arts the most important training for a samurai is to attain spiritual peace they found a way through tea ceremony in the 16th century the fiercest samurais in Japan oda nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi shared a tea ceremony teacher Sen no Rikyu Sen no Rikyu is commonly seen as the one who epitomized Japanese tea ceremony his family lasted 400 years and is descended Sangan Shih Tzu is seen by the Japanese as a modern-day scent no Riku it is a great honor to have tea prepared by sending Shih Tzu himself [Music] [Music] [Music] I have a memory from when I was around 8 years old when I was back in first grade my father called me into the tea room one day one side we did I started practicing tea ceremony on the team [Music] [Music] [Music] about 500 years ago my ancestor said no Ricky senti wasn't just for drinking we should create a peace and a world without clubs a world of equality through a cup of tea this is a master Brighton no Center or if you became older no no Ghana and Toyotomi Hideyoshi tea ceremony teachers as they say a skilled scholar and warrior you're being a warrior alone isn't enough [Music] contemporary kendo focuses on the training of the body in the mind to create strong spiritual power it is a transcendence of the samurai spirit [Music] [Music] kendo practitioners can still assist their training through tea ceremony the sword was once seen as a symbol of the samurai spirit something that should never leave their masters however when one enters the tea room the sword must be left outside even Toyotomi Hideyoshi who ruled over japan was no exception after Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified japan by force he reached the pinnacle of his power he was eager to exert his position through tea ceremony in a tommy's Museum of Art there is displayed a replica of the tea room that belonged to Toyotomi Hideyoshi this tea room was made with over 40,000 pieces of gold fill and along with the gold T utensils this room is priced at 3.9 million u.s. dollars Hideyoshi built a gold tea house he wanted to surprise rich and told him that much you're not another girl because Hideyoshi served him tea personally but sender Richard wasn't surprised at all instead he asked what hang on to him non your attorney-at-law the tea house Sen no Rikyu looked up to was completely different konnichi on is Iran sank his most precious tea house it has been passed on for 16 generations it's layout must match the ideals of tea ceremony harmony tranquility simplicity and solitude [Music] there is also only one principal for the garden to abide by the rules of nature [Music] if we didn't have marine that world what would the world be like we don't know you know when you see green tea on the table nature living together as one if our ancestors put great emphasis on this belief send a Ric you pass this on to us we pass it on to our descendants and so the tradition continues in the 400 years after Sen no Rikyu various sects were derived from Japanese tea ceremony as the samurai of the last century stepped back from the stage of history Japan became a modern society traditional tea ceremony was forgotten for a time until the end of the Second World War when the Japanese once again found spiritual reprieve in tea ceremony the tea and Miyagi Makos hand isn't the best in Shizuoka but there are hand-painted drawings of the tea maker on every package the painters of these pictures are all Makos children the children like to draw pictures of tea picking on the tea plantation but even more than that they like to draw their mother [Music] [Music] forty years ago popular actress Miyagi Mako fell in love with the author Jin Asuka Yoshiyuki since they didn't have any children Maiko decided to retire from acting and set up a foster care organization for children with special needs my husband told me the following one [Music] make sure you don't complain with you a uni club - you need don't tell me you have no money okay nice though you answer you sad see this through rameneh pop-up if you could do that you could do it that if that's unreal it's hard apart from drawing what the children like most is to prepare tea for the guests and their mother donations from the community are the main source of support for the children and T is the gift that children give back to those who give to them when the weather is good neighboring tea growers will also take the children T picking the children will carefully pack the tea they picked to give to people who have helped them I want to give children who suffered in earthquakes and other disasters the chance to learn and be loved for see all children deserve the opportunity to blossom and achieve in life regardless of their circumstance Meiko hopes that children can learn something from tea ceremony is one useless just because they are handicapped another I don't believe that's true as long as one focuses on doing something one can do it I've always believed that Mako's husband gennosuke passed away 20 years ago at almost 90 Miyako is finding it hard to look after these children by herself however she believes that even after she is gone the children will live on happily in this world of paintings and tea [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for 400 years the Japanese have lived by the tea ceremony rituals formed during Sen no Rikyu sera using it as a guide to the ancient wise men's thoughts and ways China on the other hand replaced the complicated tea preparation rituals with freer brewing methods since the Ming Dynasty taking Chinese tea ceremony into an all new era we can say ciao Joe kung fu tea is a living fossil Chinese tea culture even in Chow Chow where everyone is adept at making tea yeah Han Jones skilled tea making is renowned some say he makes the tea come to life after decades of kung fu tea bro each has their own way of making it in chow chow with my heart when we say kung foo we're talking about the bottled water the equipment and the brewing skills see the funny sheet is to prove good cup of tea so more powerful service in fact there is a chance to the Bruce Army in the early Ming Dynasty tea drinking in China underwent a major revolution frying replaced steaming and loose leaf tea replaced tea cakes tea was no longer eaten and people were more happy to savor the original flavor and fragrance of t-through brewing tea [Music] in ciaochao tea brewing is a common skill found everywhere in the Chow Chow and Shantou Roger you have a tea shop every hundred meters me and a place to drink tea no wallet every 20 meters [Music] in ciaochao every person who passes by your Doris and Gaston you pass by someone's door the owner of a tea for you the opportunity [Music] every person and every family feels like they have an ego they have a trilogy that day Vienna it's part of life here how does so honey boo her life from the time a child starts over again what early this little dope will be feeding him tea Oh oh babe once the child has had a double stick until he dies we can't change it the most common brew with the people of ciao Joe is Fung Wong Don Tom tea this tea was named after its origin fun Hong Mountain in Chow Chow on Fung Wong Mountain there are over 3,700 old tea trees that are over 200 years old yeah Han Jung teaches about the craft of tea in university and taking his students hiking in search of tea is the first lesson of his class at first a friend introduced me saying there was something good up there tea I thought we needed to find this resource a halfway there I was deprived of oxygen it was a hard however after hiking a few more times I got used to it the hike is actually a kind of life experience it may be difficult during the process when you perceive that succeed you could have wide open feels anything to that song to you the whole [Music] whether a cup of tea is good or bad one sip will tell you about the heart of the person who may be hook so they'll knock those two off how the scene has it evolved it Fung Wong Don Chong is a half fermented along tea famous for its many fragrances there are two things to strive for the making tea one he's an addict smooth and the other has to make it fragrant here have a smell it's very fragrant think about that when you're making tea training in the wilderness is essential for young people learning about tea however Gahan Jones greatest wish is to use the character of tea to influence and help more young people today is orientation day at han-shan Normal University yunjeong hurried to the school he hopes to guide his students and perform for the new students the brewing skills of Chow Joe kung fu T learning to brew and drink tea requires discipline have some tea once your heart and mind is calm charisma making tea is a good thing a happy thing one can make tea for life ha that's why you be in the great traditions of the Far East tea can be a source of personal fulfillment and can encourage people to want the best for others and edifying self-improving principle lies at the very heart of tea one that works for personal growth and for the good of society there are lessons there for all of us join us for the next episode where we discover how tea also brings together disparate communities and people's stimulates exploration and breaks down barriers all the way from Tyler to Calcutta and Georgia via the back alleys of Beijing [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: China Hour

Views: 23,452

Keywords: Chinese, Japanese, Tea, Cceremony, china, japan, china hour, sky tv, cup

Id: F_Y5rBE8wH4

Length: 47min 40sec (2860 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2018