The angle of the tea whisk when checking it

The spring started from today on Japanese calendar. However, it is still cold and we had light snow falls this morning.



Yesterday we had another tea lesson. One new thing I learned was an angle of the tea whisk when you hold it. Before and after making tea, we raise the tea whisk and check it for breakage of splines in temae. I used to raise the tea whisk horizontally (left picture). But our muster advised me that it looks more beautiful if I hold it with its head down little. (right picture) I agreed with it. The movement with tilted tea whisk looks more natural and beautiful. I know this little thing is nothing related to the taste of tea. You might think why Japanese care so much detail just for preparing tea. But, this is The Way of Tea, and preparing tea gracefully is one part of it. I’m proud of this highly developed culture matured around tea. I was glad learning something to make my temae better.