Really interesting post, Vanessa. Lots of history here, and you've no doubt done a lot of research to put it together.
Have you ever read David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet? I don't recall if tea ceremonies featured in it, but reading this made me think of that book. It's a strange one, but I loved it and the historical detail of 18th century Japan was fascinating. Certainly one of my favourite books that I've read in the last five years or so.
Thank you! I did read The Thousand Autumns quite a while ago. Don't think there was any tea ceremony in it but it was a great read. It was a fascinating time when Japan was officially shut-off from the world but intercultural exchange still took place & the Japanese were just starting to learn & accept more of modern science & technology.
In terms of tea ceremony, I believe the piece of literature most famous for featuring it is Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes. I forget how exactly tea features in it but I do love Kawabata.
Thanks for the interesting and informative post - I know text is all we have but it would be really interesting to know how lessons themselves were conducted back then and how the nonverbal stuff transferred from teacher to student (and which teachers and students learned from male/female perspectives and how that shifted), overall I loved the 9 year old hosting a gathering and this line: “This is not the Way of Tea; social position has no place in the tearoom; the positions are determined by that day’s main guest.” Which rings true in the worlds of tea I’ve felt most fully. 🙏
Right? I love how you can meet all sorts of different people in the tea room.
Hard to say how tea was taught & transmitted back then -- schools & forms were definitely more fluid than they are now, there would have been many more different styles. Nowadays the 3 main schools encompass 90% of all practitioners & they have a very particular way of doing things. Of course, the teacher-student relationship would have been very different from what we're used to as well. I would be interested in how much was learned from in-person classes vs. books. Maybe these tea handbooks really were the early modern version of Youtube -- you can learn a lot from them but it's always better to have a teacher.
Really interesting post, Vanessa. Lots of history here, and you've no doubt done a lot of research to put it together.
Have you ever read David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet? I don't recall if tea ceremonies featured in it, but reading this made me think of that book. It's a strange one, but I loved it and the historical detail of 18th century Japan was fascinating. Certainly one of my favourite books that I've read in the last five years or so.
Thank you! I did read The Thousand Autumns quite a while ago. Don't think there was any tea ceremony in it but it was a great read. It was a fascinating time when Japan was officially shut-off from the world but intercultural exchange still took place & the Japanese were just starting to learn & accept more of modern science & technology.
In terms of tea ceremony, I believe the piece of literature most famous for featuring it is Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes. I forget how exactly tea features in it but I do love Kawabata.
Glad you enjoyed it too!
Thanks re: Kawabata. *Adds to the list!*
Thanks for the interesting and informative post - I know text is all we have but it would be really interesting to know how lessons themselves were conducted back then and how the nonverbal stuff transferred from teacher to student (and which teachers and students learned from male/female perspectives and how that shifted), overall I loved the 9 year old hosting a gathering and this line: “This is not the Way of Tea; social position has no place in the tearoom; the positions are determined by that day’s main guest.” Which rings true in the worlds of tea I’ve felt most fully. 🙏
Right? I love how you can meet all sorts of different people in the tea room.
Hard to say how tea was taught & transmitted back then -- schools & forms were definitely more fluid than they are now, there would have been many more different styles. Nowadays the 3 main schools encompass 90% of all practitioners & they have a very particular way of doing things. Of course, the teacher-student relationship would have been very different from what we're used to as well. I would be interested in how much was learned from in-person classes vs. books. Maybe these tea handbooks really were the early modern version of Youtube -- you can learn a lot from them but it's always better to have a teacher.