2011年10月2日日曜日

Tea Ceremomy in a temple

On Oct. 1. tea ceremony by many schools was held  in a temple, Manpuku-ji(萬福寺).
 A friend of mine got the tickets and invited me to attend there.
 Tasting tea in this good season and that the event is for viewing moon with a cup of tea if we would be lucky were too attractive to resist.


 

This temple is located in Uji-city in Kyoto prefecture where green tea is special product, and was built about 350years ago.The main hall has not been rebuilt since then.


Main hall

from one of the other smaller halls


The scale of the temple precincts is vast , though I did not see so many priests nor monks there. He is one of them whom I saw a few and his youth reminds me of a sensational tanka of the following by Akiko Yosano ( 与謝野 晶子1878~1942).


やは肌のあつき血汐にふれも見でさびしからずや道を説く君
Rather than trying


to touch the burning passion


pulsing beneath my soft


pale skin, you preach morality.


Aren't you awfully lonely?

I found this translation by Sam Hanill and Keiko Matsui Gibson in a book "RIVER OF STARS" that GABRIELA told me in her comment on this blog.


I'm enjoying this book. Thank you GABRIELA.



Serving green tea called sencha started at 15:30.
We arrived at the temple around 16:00
Sencha(煎茶), a sort of green tea (茶=tea),  improved its manner for service in each of several  sencha schools after the original one came from China.


Some schools set up tables on the ground here and there and some do inside of the halls for serving green tea.

Guests and visitors come one after another and wait until the previous series of service will have finished.

The circuit was continued until 20:00, and we stayed there until 18:30.
We enjoyed tea of three schools, though I couldn't distinguished the difference of the subtle taste.
I need to learn more.



in front of the main hall, ritual-like tea ceremony is ongoing


hanging lanterns on the ceiling of the cloister
 






















Can you see the letters sencha (煎茶)on the hanging lantern?
Actually it is written that the letters sencha-dou
(煎茶道).
道 means way, and it suggests that  to learn something is like a long way.







Seeing and tasting is learning,


I will try to make better tea from now on.


my mother-in-law's heirloom


16 件のコメント:

Celeste さんのコメント...

Salut Haricot,

ce endroit, ce temple tout cela me semble si paisible...... en plus déguster du thé vert qui est ma boisson favorite c'est divin.
les photos des lanternes est sublime.
Bien à vous.Celeste

Macy さんのコメント...

I had no idea that tea ceremonies were annual events and that you could get tickets for tea tasting in temples!
This is all fascinating stuff.
Thanks Haricot

Jen さんのコメント...

What a special day and evening. Your pictures are lovely--I especially love the lanterns at night and I love the tanka that the monk reminded you of. This was a very moving and interesting post. Your mother-in-law's heirloom tea set is beautiful.

☆sapphire さんのコメント...

Lovely post, haricot! I wish I could visit the temple and see the moon while having a cup of green tea!!
I love Yosano Akiko's tanka and the one you've presented to us in this page is one of my favourites.
I'd think it is romantic and a little sexy as well. Your tea set is very beautiful!!

前回の記事で、お忙しいなか、いろいろお教えいただきましてありがとうございます。彼岸花が咲くお寺は少し遠いようですね。でも行ってみたいです。

sarah さんのコメント...

It's difficult to make a cup of tasty tea for me,too. People in generation of my mother are good at it,I think.
A set of sentya-wan of your mother- in-low is very beautiful.
Thank you for sharing an information.

cosmos さんのコメント...

This post reminds me of the tea ceremony I attended at Reikanji-temple in Kyoto a few years ago.
I am not good at manners but enjoyed green tea served in a quiet and natural surroundings.
By the way, I knew kidney beans were called Ingen in Japanese after the Chinese monk who founded this temple.

stardust さんのコメント...

万福寺でいい秋の日を過ごされましたね。 写真がそれを物語っています。私もコスモスさんと同じく、万福寺、隠元、インゲンマメ、haricot を連想しました。お母様からの茶器もすばらしいです。

裏千家の茶道をしばらく友人に習っていました(習うというより、月に一度その時間を楽しんでいたと思います)が、なかなか自分で納得のいくおいしい薄茶をたてることはできませんでした。煎茶の御手前はより普段のお茶に役立つようにも思いますが、おいしいお茶をさしあげたいという姿勢、無駄のない美しい動きはかわらないでしょうね。普段のお茶も心をこめていれたいです。

haricot さんのコメント...

Celeste

Salut! Merci pour votre visite.
Prendre du the est tres bon pour avoir sante. Mais c'est un peu difficile de faire du the tres bon qualite pour moi. Je fait tout simple...

Marcy

Thank you for your visiting.
I sometimes see how they enjoy tea in UK on TV, and I admore that way.
In dairy life I enjoy simple making tea, though to attend such ceremony occasionally is stimulating.

Jen

Thank you for your paying a visit here and left your kind comment,
in spite of your busyness.
Have a good week ahead.

snowwhite さんのコメント...

Haricot,
Such a long time has passed since I visited this temple last time. I enjoyed amazing vegetarian food cooked by the priests with my friends.
The tea set of your mother-in law is exquisite! The taste of tea will be better with them.
The word “煎茶道”tells me the spirit of Zen and long way to learn one thing.

Best wishes
keiko

haricot さんのコメント...

sarah

Thank you for your comment, sarah.
You wrote that it's difficult for you to make tasty tea, though it seems that you'd like to make tea.
Enjoy your days with tea.

cosmos

stardust

You both know well about the history of the beans. Actually I saw the beans there and took a photo, but my knowledge about it is to poor to descrive.

snowwhite

I also had the dish called fucha-ryori when my sons were students.
To be honest I prefer making coffee in my dairy life. As green tea includes vitaminC and catechin, I'll utilize green tea more often.
Thank you for your kind comment.

haricot さんのコメント...

sapphire

Thank you very much for your comment.

佛隆寺へのアクセスも、近畿の台風被害状況も、おおざっぱなもので申し訳ありません。
15号は東京でも大荒れでしたから、被害に遭われなかったことを、遅ればせながら念じています。

Jenny Woolf さんのコメント...

This is a great post. I like everything about it - the description and idea of gathering to drink tea in this way, and the beautiful photographs (specially of the lanterns). The tanka is wonderful, too. What a different country Japan is from our own. It's so interesting to read about it.

Matthew Thivierge さんのコメント...

Great post on tea! I love Japanese tea ceremonies!
Recently I've been researching Senchado. Could you send me the temple website? What city was the temple near? What are the names of the 3 schools? Sorry so many questions. You can Email me
JackieTango@gmail.com

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