An ancient tea master, Rikyu said “prepare
the tea just right”. This is one of the
seven essentials of The Way of Tea, which I introduced on the previous entry. People have different
interpretations of the essentials.
How do you interpret “prepare the tea just
right”? Do you think there is an
absolute way of preparing tea? I think
that “Prepare the tea just right” means “prepare the tea just right for your
guests”. The tea should be in an appropriate
amount, temperature and density that your guests want. You need to consider the guest’s condition,
today’s weather or the situation. It’s
important that you need to think of each guest’s feelings and situations. I don’t think there is an absolute preparation.
There is a famous episode for serving
tea.
One hot day, a samurai, Hideyoshi stopped by a temple on a trip for hawking. A boy at the temple served tea to him. The boy was highly evaluated by Hideyoshi with
the three servings of tea.
The boy prepared plenty of thin tea with lukewarm
water first. Hideyoshi drained the tea,
and asked another serving. The boy
prepared the second tea with a standard way, hotter-thicker tea with smaller amount
than the first one. Hideyoshi had the
tea and asked another serving. The boy
served thicker and much less amount of tea for the third. Hideyoshi relished the tea and asked the boy
why he served different teas. The boy
answered “You must have been thirsty, so I made the first tea easy to drink and
to quench your thirst. Your thirst must
have got ease, so I made the smooth tea for the second serving. Your thirst must have gone at the moment, so
I made the third tea for you to savor the rich flavor”. Hideyoshi loved his thoughtful wits.
I think this is a good example of “Prepare
the tea just right”.
My interpretation of “Prepare the tea just
right” is that
considering appropriate points on things is
important.
My interpretation may vary in the future as
I experience and understand The Way of Tea more.
This will be the last entry of this
year. Thank you so much for reading my
blog. I’ll probably be back around the
second week in January. I wish you all a
happy new year!!
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