April - Celebrating Birth

Tsurigama hanging kettle

They say “April showers bring May flowers.”  While the sakura are in full bloom in Japan, here in Stow, Ohio at the Snowflake Tea Room, April brings the hope for warmer weather to blossom and the birth of spring flowers taking their first breath of air.  As the temperature rises and the days get warmer, we prepare for the journey of the kettle in the sunken winter hearth to a hanging kettle or tsurigama.  The cast iron kettle is suspended on a chain from the ceiling.  As the kettle is being used by the host, it swings gently giving the impression of a soft spring breeze floating across the tatami mats.

Many of the wagashi and higashi traditional Japanese sweets for spring mirror the look and feel of the seasonal and stunning sakura blossoms.  These sweets are artfully crafted and typically made from plant ingredients.  Higashi (dried sweets) are made from a rice flour, sugar and starch mixture then pressed into molds to dry.  At the tea room we offer these Japanese confections before serving tea.  They sweeten the mouth before a sip of matcha green tea which can be bitter.  Since we do not add sugar to matcha, this helps to balance the flavor of the tea.

Wagashi and higashi sweets for spring

On April 8, Buddha’s birthday is celebrated at Buddhist temples in Japan.  The commemoration is called Kanbutsu-e or Hana Matsuri  (Flower Festival).  On this day, a basin of water with a small childlike statue of Buddha is placed in the center of a hanamido or “flower hall” that has been adorned with colorful flowers.  With arms simultaneously pointed upward and downward, the baby Buddha statue symbolizes the words of Buddha after birth, “I alone am honored in heaven and on earth .”

Kanbutsu-e celebration

Visitors sprinkle sweet hydrangea tea or amacha over the head of the statue as if bathing a newborn baby.  It is a symbolic gesture recreating Buddha’s birth in the garden of Lumbini where he was anointed after birth with pure water from heaven.  In the past, this sweet tea was thought to have magical powers.  Families would drink the tea and write spells with ink made from the tea to ward off unwanted animals and spirits.

In the month of April, as the season changes we also give birth to a different style of tea that incorporates a portable box or tabi-dansu with the tea utensils arranged inside.  Tabi means travel and dansu means chest.  It is therefore fitting for this traveling chest to be used in the tea room, for outdoor ceremonies or when a proper tea room is not available.

"April Snow" tabi-dansu

When doing tea outside of the tea room, tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) preferred to have his utensils by his side.  He is credited with inventing the box for his travels with warlord Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1536-1598) during times of battle in the 16^th century.  Made of plain palownia wood, the latched front door and two shelves inside are removable and allow for a variety of ways to use the box for tea ceremony.  For example, the middle shelf can be removed and used as a protective tray for the natsume or tea caddy and chasen or tea whisk versus placing the utensils on the bare ground when outdoors.  

We look forward to our April Snow tabi-dansu making an appearance for it is indeed a sure sign that the birth of spring is near.  We hope you will join us at the tea room to welcome spring.  Please make time to come and enjoy a bowl of tea with us.

April style at Snowflake Tea Room

Photo credit:
Jeanenne Gribble, tea student
Elaine Robinson, tea student

Rikyu: Honoring a Pioneer of Tea

“Spring air – 

woven moon
and plum scent.”

--  Matsuo Bashō

(Famous poet of the Edo period in Japan and master of haiku)

Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591)

As spring steeps into our minds and hearts at this time of year, in tea we prepare for a time of annual memorial to tea master, Sen no Rikyu, and our ancestors, family and loved ones that are no longer with us.  Their spirits live on through us, and it is a time to remember them.  Regardless of the school of tea, it is customary for all who practice tea ceremony to honor Rikyu at this time.  In March, we memorialize the anniversary of his death on February 28 in the 19^th year of the Tensho era and pray for repose of his spirit.  This is an important event as our tea ceremony is descended from Rikyu.  We honor him as our tea founder and show appreciation for what we have inherited.  We also pay homage to loved ones we have lost by offering up a bowl of tea and revisiting memories of them.

Sen no Rikyu introduced, gave shape to and perfected the aesthetic concept of wabi in the tea ceremony.  Wabi is quiet contentment with simple things.  Rikyu believed that through practicing simplicity in the way of tea it was possible to reach enlightenment.  The wabi philosophy embraces the virtue of simplicity and finding understated beauty in imperfection.  These values helped Rikyu to mold the form and spirit of the tea ceremony we follow today.  Rikyū developed, popularized, and incorporated wabi principles into Chanoyu by creating coarse-grained, unadorned surfaces and materials for the atmosphere and wares that were appreciated for their humble, primitive appearance in the elegantly choreographed preparation of tea.

During our ceremony dedicated to Rikyu and those who have passed on, we use a ceramic tenmoku tea bowl with a narrow foot that is set on a wooden tenmoku-dai or stand for the offering of tea.  Much care and attention is taken in handling the bowl and stand when making a tea offering on this occasion.

Tenmoku bowl with tea offering set on tenmoku-dai stand

This year’s Rikyu and family memorial chakai (tea gathering) at the Snowflake Tea Room in Stow, Ohio will be on Sunday, March 17.  Beginning at 12:00 p.m., students and observers will gather in the tea room where a scroll commemorating Rikyu will be displayed in the alcove along with photos of loved ones on the tokonoma.  An offering of tea will be made in the tenmoku tea bowl and the group will enjoy thin tea in memory of Rikyu and loved ones.  Sensei, tea students, family and friends will share thoughts in honor of our founder Rikyu and memories of those who have passed on.

Photos displayed on the tokonoma in memory of loved ones

This scroll of Rikyu was a gift to the tea room from a student

In Japan, the Higan-e Ceremony is widely practiced on March 21, the vernal equinox when the length of daylight and darkness is exactly the same.  This signifies the inseparability of light (yang) and dark (ying) and the oneness of good and evil. The word “higan” means “arriving on the other shore” and symbolizes the crossing over from the impure world to the pure land of enlightenment in Buddhism.  The significance of the Higan-e Ceremony in Buddhist practice is to do good deeds that will bring benefits and virtues to the believer and the deceased.  By performing memorial services and making offerings in honor of parents and ancestors on this day, small good deeds become great positive acts and an exceptional opportunity to reaching higan or the other shore of enlightenment.

It is also the time of year in Japan for hanami, or “flower viewing”.  This traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of cherry (sakura) and plum (ume) blossoms happens from March to early May.  It is a time for celebration of nature and life, offering a magnificent visual spectacle.  The sakura blossom is seen as a metaphor for life, its beauty luminous yet fleeting and short-lived. 

Sakura was originally used as an offering to bless the rice fields and announce the rice-planting season.  Today, many outdoor parties and cheerful feasts take place beneath the blossoming boughs of sakura trees both during the day and at night or yozakura by the light of paper lanterns hung overhead.

hanami by day...

yozakura by night

Photo credit:
Elaine Robinson, tea student

Hatsugama – The Year of the Snake

Sunday, February 10, 2013 began the Chinese New Year and marked the Year of the Snake.  Attributes associated with the snake are transformation, introspection, intelligence, cunning, moving quickly and striking fast.  This year calls for patience and wisdom in all things.  It is a year for being careful and cautious to unexpected changes and contemplating new ideas that will bring success and abundance in the future.

Tea student dressed in kimono enjoying festive decorations

Hatsugama translates to “first kettle” and is the first formal tea ceremony of the New Year and the biggest celebration of the tea year.  It takes place in a traditional Japanese setting or tea room.  This is a very special and unique event for both the teacher and student when the teacher acts as the host, preparing and serving tea for all of his or her students in a traditional ceremony.  Typically, students dress in customary kimono for this tea and the mood is festive.

Traditional tea room setting in Hatsugama style

The tokonoma or alcove of the tea room is beautifully adorned with decorative motifs of Sho-Chiku-Bai (pine, bamboo, plum).  Together this threesome represents promise and good fortune and brings in the ideals of longevity (pine), flexibility (bamboo) and pure spirit (plum).  Looped willow branches are also hung in the tokonoma to signify teacher and students coming together to renew their hopes for the coming year and their commitment to the practice of tea.  In ancient China, when one left on a journey, they were given a coiled willow branch as a prayer for their safe return.  The willow branches also hint at the promise of spring, and thus it became the custom to display coiled willow at this time of year.

Decorated tokonoma

Coiled willow branches

This year’s Hatsugama celebration at the Snowflake Tea Room in Stow, Ohio on Sunday, February 10 at 12:00 p.m. was attended by Sensei Myoshu Wren, eight of her students, family and friends.  These were people of all levels of tea experience and included senior students, guests who had not ever studied tea and even some old friends.  After admiring the display of utensils and articles in the tea room, students took their places on the tatami mats and were served thick matcha green tea by Sensei Myoshu.

Sensei Myoshu preparing tea

First bowl of matcha green tea

We sipped the lovely thick green tea out of beautiful gold chawans or tea bowls.  New Year’s greetings were expressed and gifts exchanged.  We then convened at Pad Thai in Hudson, Ohio for a festive New Year meal.

Displays at Pad Thai in celebration of the New Year

Ichigo, ichie means one moment, one chance.  Tea is all about being in the moment, having the experience, and making a memory to treasure out of each unique tea encounter.  A delightful, memorable time was had by all who attended this year’s Hatsugama observance.

Sensei Myoshu and students

Thanks to Sensei Myoshu and my tea sisters and brothers for all the planning and preparation that went into creating a lovely celebration.


Photo credit:
Sensei Myoshu Wren
Anne Kessing, tea student
Elaine Robinson, tea student