Japanese tea culture

Lead: Japanese tea ceremony is a ritual thing to serve tea to guests in Japan. Originally called "tea soup". Japanese tea ceremony, like other East Asian tea ceremonies, is a special culture developed mainly by tasting tea, but its content and form are different. The history of tea ceremony can be traced back to13rd century. At first, monks used tea to concentrate their thoughts, but in the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Zhou invited scholars by "drinking tea". Later, it became a ceremony to share tea and food. Nowadays, Japanese tea ceremony can be divided into matcha road and frying tea ceremony, but the word tea ceremony refers to matcha road which developed earlier. Let's bring you Japanese tea culture. Come and have a look.

The "tea room" of Japanese tea ceremony, also known as "this seat" and "teahouse", is the place where tea ceremony is held. Tea rooms in Japan are generally made of bamboo and reeds. The teahouse is generally around 9- 10 square meters, with four and a half tatami. Small and elegant, compact structure, so that the host and guests can have a heart-to-heart conversation. Tea room is divided into special areas such as bed room, guest room, pre-order room and stove step. There are niches, floor stoves and various wooden windows in the room, and a "water room" is also arranged on one side to store utensils for boiling water, making tea and tasting tea and cleaning utensils. Celebrity calligraphy and painting in the bed, bamboo vase hanging next to it, and flower arrangement in the bottle. The types of flower arrangement vary from season to season.

The tea set of Japanese tea ceremony originated from China, so the tea set of Japanese tea ceremony also originated from China Kung Fu tea set. Its basic tea set, like Chaozhou Kung Fu tea set, is divided into four parts: a cooling furnace and an air furnace for boiling water; Teapots, iron-covered bowls for boiling water; Soup bottles, pots with handles and mouths for making tea, are called "urgent use"; A tea bowl, a porcelain bowl for tea soup.

In addition, there are "tea houses" for grinding tea leaves and "fire sticks" with white charcoal; "water injection" of cold water; A "charcoal basket" filled with white charcoal; The "water turn" for cleaning tea sets; A "incense box" for holding incense; A "tea basket" for stirring when making tea; Bamboo "tea spoon" for taking tea powder; A "tea towel" to wipe the tea bowl; A "teapot" for holding tea powder; A "feather broom" made of three big bird feathers is used for dust removal; A "charcoal bucket" full of charcoal; "ash container" for furnace ash; A "water spoon" used to fetch water, etc.

There are many kinds of utensils for Japanese tea ceremony, not only in size, but also in harmony (Japan), Tang (China) and Korea.

Drinking tea has always been about the use of utensils. Small and exquisite tea sets are pleasing to the eye. Needless to say, using a big tea set is also very interesting. Although there have been famous big bowls of tea in Beijing, they are dwarfed by those in Japan.

This big bowl of tea is produced in the famous Xiwei Temple in the northwest of Naraichi. Every April and the second weekend of 10, there will be a "big tea ceremony". In Japanese, "sheng" means "vessel" and "big tea bowl" means big tea bowl. This big tea bowl is really big enough, with a height of 2 1 cm, a diameter of 36 cm, a circumference of 107 cm and a weight of 7 kg. It can be called a giant in tea sets.

Drinking a big bowl of tea needs the help of both sides.

Philanthropy originated more than 700 years ago.

Why do you drink tea in such a huge tea bowl? It is said that in 1239, after the monks of Xiwei Temple offered tea to the Bodhisattva in the temple, they gave the remaining tea to the believers gathered in the temple in order to bless "the peace of the county and the happiness of the people". At that time, tea was mostly imported from China, belonging to high-grade luxury goods, which were only popular among nobles and monks, while in Japanese folk, tea was regarded as a panacea.

When we were drinking tea for everyone, because there were not enough tea sets, a large basin of tea was filled, and everyone took a bite and passed it on. This practice has been well received by believers, and Nishimoto's reputation is getting bigger and bigger. Later, this tradition of distributing tea to believers visiting temples has been passed down to this day. The tea set used in Xiwei Temple remains the same as it was at that time, becoming a unique big tea bowl in Japan.

The elder is frying tea.

Drink a big bowl of tea with trepidation

Nowadays, drinking tea has become a daily habit of Japanese, but many people still believe that temple tea can ward off diseases and ward off evil spirits. The "Big Tea Festival" held by Xiwei Temple every spring and autumn is packed with people. Although the ticket costs 4000 yen, it is extremely difficult to get. The ceremony itself is more like a religious ceremony than distributing tea. Participants were taken to a Japanese-style room covered with tatami and knelt on the futon to wait. Surrounded by monks, the elders of the temple slowly strolled into the room with solemn expressions and began to tell the story of the big tea bowl. The listener sits in danger and the speaker speaks clearly. Then, the elders boiled the tea under the gaze of everyone. There are two kinds of tea, one is fried tea, which is to boil tea directly in boiling water; The other is matcha, which is unique to Japan. First, dry tea leaves are crushed, then boiled water is added and stirred into paste. When drinking tea, five people in groups get a big tea bowl. The elder symbolically poured tea into the bowl with a long tea spoon, and then he could drink tea.

Because the tea bowl is big and heavy, it is really difficult for a person to drink tea alone, and people on both sides need to help hold the tea bowl. When drinking tea, my head is almost completely buried in the bowl. From the front, you can't see the face of the tea drinker at all. Because of nervousness, many people are shivering when drinking a big bowl of tea. It is said that every year someone slips the tea bowl and is embarrassed by the big bowl of tea.

Japanese tea culture

Japan, like China, is an Asian country, and Japan has a deep relationship with China. Japan used to be called Japan, and many Japanese cultures and technologies were handed down from China, such as Japanese textile technology, shipbuilding technology, metalworking technology, writing, medical skills, astronomical calendar, Confucianism, tea culture and so on.

Japanese tea ceremony can be traced back to16th century, but Japanese tea culture originated in China. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Japanese monks brought tea varieties to Mount Xi in Kyoto. Later, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Rong Xi, a Japanese monk, also studied Buddhism and tea art in Tiantai Mountain and wrote the famous "Drinking Tea for Health". Since then, tea drinks have taken root in Japan. Japanese tea ceremony is developed on the basis of "daily tea and rice", which integrates daily life behavior with religion, philosophy, ethics and aesthetics and becomes a comprehensive cultural and artistic activity. It is not only material enjoyment, but also learning tea ceremony through tea party, cultivating temperament and cultivating people's aesthetic and moral concepts. As Fu Sen Tian said, "Tea ceremony has evolved from simple fun and entertainment to a norm and ideal to express Japanese daily life culture."

The origin and development of Japanese tea ceremony can be divided into three historical stages:

In the first stage, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China tea culture was transformed into Taoism. Many Japanese monks came here to study, brought China's Buddha and tea back to Japan, and began to exhibit Japanese tea culture "the first branch in the East".

In the second stage, in the Song Dynasty, the tea culture in China Zen became more and more mature and prosperous. At this time, there was an endless stream of Japanese monks who "learned from the scriptures". Rong, a famous monk, entered the Song Dynasty twice, lived in China for 24 years, brought back the Zen-intensive China Tea Ceremony, brought back the Blue Rock Record written by the Zen master and "tea-obsessed Zen" to Japan, and personally wrote "Drinking Tea for Health", thus becoming the ancestor of Japanese Buddhism Lin Ji School.

In the third stage, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, under the stimulation and guidance of China's Zen Buddhism and the concept of "Zen tea blindly", a kind of tea ceremony-Cao ancha, which appeared in a brand-new spirit and form, opened a brilliant page in the history of Japanese tea culture, and was pioneered by Zhuguang Murata, the originator of Japanese tea ceremony. Zhu Guang once participated in meditation with Master Yixiu, and after hard training, he finally became a disciple of Master Yixiu, from whom he got Mo Bao from Yuan Wu Keqin. Zhuguang applied it to the tea ceremony, which opened up a new realm of the combination of tea and Zen in Japanese tea ceremony. This is the origin of the allusion of "Mohan Mountain". Yuan Wu Keqin's ink became the initial symbol of the combination of Zen and tea, and also the highest treasure in Japanese tea ceremony. When people entered the teahouse, they all knelt in front of the ink to show their respect for Wu Yuan. Thus, Zhuguang was established as the pioneer of Japanese tea ceremony, and once put forward "respecting tranquility" as the spirit of tea ceremony; Later, Sen no Rikyū inherited the tea ceremony, followed the principle of "harmony, respect, purity and silence" and became a cultural and artistic activity integrating religion, philosophy, ethics and aesthetics.

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