Question

Outline the history of tea ceremony (chanoyu茶の湯 or chadō 茶道) in Japan, considering cultural, religious, and aesthetic factors.​

Answer 1

• Drinking of green tea was known in China from the fourth century. Tea plants didn’t grow in Japan until the first seeds were brought from China during the Tang dynasty (China 618-907), when relations and cultural exchanges between the two countries reached a peak.
• During the Nara period (Japan 710-794) tea plants were grown in Japan and mainly consumed by priests and noblemen as medicine.The Japanese were forced to mold and cultivate their own traditions and culture around the tea.
• Tea started to spread outside of the Uji district where it had mainly been grown since the beginning. But by now popularity and so demand was growing rapidly and called for plantations all around Japan.
• The samurai class, who loved everything about the Sung dynasty including the Tea ceremony, embraced it wholly and caused even greater popularity of the ritual preparation of green tea.
• Tea did not truly make its mark on Japanese culture until the 1400s, during which time the country entered the Muromachi Period. This era, which spanned most of the 1300s up to the mid-1500s, was a watershed for tea culture and ceremony.
• Many experts point to these years as the birth of authentic Japanese culture. Indeed, the cultural and political elites of the day strongly encouraged the cultivation of tea and the Buddhist-inspired philosophy that accompanied its drinking.
• Buddhist monks and lay practitioners used tea ceremony as a sort of vehicle to practice essential religious precepts. Both the inner and outer life of the individual was nurtured in preparation for the next life.
• Many of these rituals were part and parcel of formal tea ceremony, with each step of inner and outer perfection intended to lead to spiritual enlightenment.
• Toward the end of the Muromachi period, the tea culture reached its peak, and tea devotees were given different titles to distinguish their relation to the art. Chanoyusha was the name given to a professional teacher of the tea ceremony like Shukou.
• A Wabi-suki was a teacher distinguished by three particular qualities: faith in the performance of tea, an ability to act with decorum befitting a proper master, and excellent practical skills.
• The idea of the four main principles of tea culture is evident in each variety of ceremony in modern Japan. Basic to all practices are the ideas of inner harmony, tranquility, purity and respect. Those four precepts were laid down centuries ago by the founders of this ancient practice.
• Historians consider tea ceremony to have been “perfected” in Japan, even though it has its roots in China. For the Japanese of the 21st century, tea ceremony is a vital, empowering, wondrous gift from the nation’s early inhabitants