by Ken Tanaka

Created on: April 21, 2008   Last Updated: July 15, 2008

While the Japanese tea ceremony may appear amusingly easy to the casual observer, it is an intricate art that concerns far more than the tea on which it is centered. Practitioners are expected to be knowledgeable of ceramics, the art of ornamental flower designing and arrangements, ink calligraphy, incense, traditional Japanese apparel (kimono), as well as their school's philosophies on tea. The tea ceremony is considered very spiritual, and tea is thought of as a link to nature.

The Japanese word for tea ceremony is "chado" or "sado" meaning the "way of tea." The suffix "do" is used in other Japanese arts, such as kendo (the way of fighting with sticks), Bushido (the way of the Samurai), aikido (the way of compassionate martial arts), or shodo (the way of ink brush calligraphy). This goes to show that the tea ceremony is a highly disciplined, structured art form.

So, if chado is not your cup of tea, I am hoping this article will lead to a deeper understanding of it. There are many varieties of Japanese tea ceremony, and certainly more than I could even hope to cover here, so I will adhere to the more basic forms of tea ceremony.

The tearoom has a fragrant straw mat floor called "tatami". Chado practitioners and guests are not permitted to step on the cracks between the straw mats, nor the center mat, avoiding them as they walk gracefully across the floor. The room is decorated with beautiful flower arrangements and aesthetic Zen calligraphy wall hangings. There is a large window through which the view of the seasonal garden and the sound of a rippling stream may be enjoyed, and at times the ceremony is held outside. Guests are seated on decorated cushions or directly on the tatami with their legs folded under them so that they are sitting on their feet. Most chado guests know how to shift their feet should the position get uncomfortable, which it does, without offending etiquette or disturbing the ceremony.

You might or might not have known that green tea comes from the same plant as black tea. Black teas are fermented, while green teas are generally sun dried after handpicking. The type of green tea (ryoku-cha) used in chado is a vividly green tea called matcha with a bitter flavor and pleasant aroma. Matcha, unlike other green teas, comes in powder form and is not steeped. It is now used in Japanese sweets and ice cream much like cocoa powder is used in western desserts and baked goods.

The tea for the chado is prepared with hot, not boiling, water. Lumps are

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