99 years old and tea

I took my 99 year-old grandpa to cherry blossom viewing this weekend.  We parked our car by the trees.  We opened all the windows and viewed them from the car.  I prepared matcha at the little space between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

As my grandpa drank the tea, some petals came in from the window onto his shoulder and lap.  How peaceful!

  

He was so happy with the blossoms and tea, and thanked me many times.  He sometimes doesn’t remember things, even my name.  However, he talks about the tea that I served at the past blossom viewings.  I think he enjoys the tea so much and it has a huge impact that it remains in his memories.   I hope the memory of this picnic will be with him as well.

The essentials: 3. Arrange the flowers as if they were in the fields

The ancient tea master, Rikyu said “Arrange the flowers as if they were in the fields”.  This is one of the seven essentials of The Way of Tea, which I introduced on the previous entry.

In a tea ceremony, flowers are displayed at the tokonoma alcove in the tea room.  They are usually seasonal flowers and simply arranged, never gaudy.  Even if there are many flowers in the field, we never bring them all into the tea room, not even if it is said to arrange the flowers as if they were in the fields.  The arrangement is usually composed of a few flowers which are carefully selected by the host to match the theme of the ceremony.

Some people interpret Rikyu’s statement as to “See the essences and express simply”.  I understand it when you think of the basics of the tea flower arrangement.  But, the interpretation, “See the essences and express simply” has a big difference literally from “Arrange the flowers as if they were in the fields” for me.  I might need more training to understand better.

At the moment, I would simply interpret it as “Making things natural or being natural is important”.  Natural is the best.  I think it can be applied to the utensils, tea room and your behavior.  That could be why natural materials with minimum processing and without unnecessary decorations are preferred for the utensils and tea room.  And also, your behavior and movement in a ceremony should be natural.  Don’t put on airs.

This interpretation may vary in the future as I experience and understand The Way of Tea more.  

Related entries

The essentials of The Way of Tea

1. Prepare the tea just right

2. Place the charcoal appropriately to boil the water

3. Arrange the flowers as if they were in the fields

4. Make it seem warm in winter, and cool in summer

5. Do things ahead of time

6. Have umbrellas ready even if it is not raining

7. Care about the guests

Omotenashi-spirit, hospitality at Japanese hotel 2

There were some other omomtenashi at Suimeikan.

There were some events and activities for guests.

They had a room for table tennis. Table tennis was a very popular activity at ryokan in the olden days. I don’t see table tennis much at ryokans nowadays. We enjoyed it. My brother and I are pretty good at table tennisψ(｀∇´)ψ

Live jazz at the lounge for free ♪( ´▽｀)

Bingo game at night
We all won some prizes except Hiro, my wife.
Poor Hiro 。・゜・(ノД`)・゜・。

I joined a little tour in the hotel.
They showed some art pieces in the hotel and facilities such as huge banquet room, a hallway for small banquet rooms and the stage for Japanese play called “No”.

During the tour, we passed a tea room. The guide didn’t explain about the tea room. I wish they had served tea at the tea room.

There were some flowers and decorations in the hotel. I think they are a part of their omotenashi.

Kadomatsu, a New Year's decoration made of bamboo and pine branches, literally means gate pines. It is displayed in pairs outside of the main entrance as a gate.

Decorations with rabbit figures at the lobby
Rabbit is the animal of the year.

Flowers around the hotel

Kagami-mochi, a special decoration for New Year made of rice cake.



Flowers in guest rooms

Flowers of the day, Sep 27 –Dec 8

Here in Japan, you see some Christmas illuminations around the town now. And also you will find some The New Year items sold at supermarkets. Happy holidays to you all!
Today I’ll upload some photos for the flowers displayed at our tea lessons.


Sep 27













Oct 6

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Dec 1













Dec 8

Flowers of the day, Jun 23 – Sep 22

Here are the flowers displayed at our tea lessons between Jun 23 and Sep 22.

Jun 23 I liked the vase.



















July 7



















Sep 15



















Sep 22

Flowers of the day, Apr 14 – Jun 16

I introduce the flowers used in our tea lessons.

When I came to the lesson (May 26), the light of the tea room was not on yet. I thought the tokonoma looked nice with just the dim light, and took a picture.

April 14













April 28













May 6













May 19













May 26













Jun 2













Jun 9













Jun 16

Japan Ikebana (or flower arrangement) Exhibition 2010

This Sunday we went to an ikebana (or Japanese flower arrangement) exhibition in Nagoya, which we got two tickets from our tea master. 180 of arrangement were displayed there. What most impressed me was that each arrangement was so creative and unique. Ikebana sound traditional to me, so I had thought it would have been more conservative. But, it actually was pretty liberal. There were various sizes of arrangement from regular ones to huge ones, which was bigger than a person. Not only traditional Japanese flowers were used, but also variety materials were used in the arrangements, such as wood trunks and barks, western flowers, bamboos, or gravel stones. There were also arrangements that embraced the water or an interesting vase effectively. What I can say to all arrangements was that people who did the arrangements know how to keep the flowers flesh. Every arrangement was very green and full of life. Ikebana we saw was very different from the arrangement of tea flower, but it was quite appealing!