Hatsugama, the first tea ceremony in 2013

The first tea ceremony of the year is called hatsugama.  We had one at our tea school last Sunday.  It is special and formal than usual.  For instance, at ordinary lessons, most students do not wear kimono or we don’t practice on purifying our hand before getting into the tea room, but we did them at hatsugama.    I’m always excited about it.

There is one thing very special about hatsugama that I look forward to the most.  It is that hatsugama is the only chance for me to see my teacher’s performance.  My teacher serves tea for us.  I took that opportunity and observed her performance closely.  I wanted to learn something out of it.  The served tea, koicha by her was excellent.  It had a perfect blend with profound flavor.  Even more than the taste of the tea, I was impressed with her movement.  Her gesture purifying the tea whisk was so graceful.  For purifying, you move the whisk in the tea bowl with water.  She lightly moved the whisk that it looked like dancing in the water. 

This is a picture of one of student, not my teacher

I realized that my movement is still stiff when comparing with her gentle and smooth gesture.  Maybe, I am too conscious that I want to move beautifully, and it makes my movement tense.  I think I need to move without thinking and without the ulterior motive, haha.  For the natural movement, I need to practice the simple movements over and over again.  That’s the only way.