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Tanabata Chakai

A wonderful day of tea Saturday at the Issoan Tea School.  Students celebrated the Star Festival with a chakai put on the advanced class who invited the new students who had never attended a chakai before.

We went through the planning process from choosing a theme, utensils, poetic names, hand made invitations to making sweets.

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From the archives

Today is my 400th post on the SweetPersimmon blog, and to celebrate, (ha) I went back to read all the entries from the beginning. I am linking to some of my favorite posts, in no particular order.   What is your favorite post on the site?

Guest etiquette for chakai

Hataraki – working things out

Thoughts …

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New reading material

I just want to call your attention to a few new (at least new to me) publications of interest to fellow Chado students, and they are in English.  You can find these along with other recommended books at the for further reading page

NEW! Sen Genshitsu Talks About the Enjoyment Of Tea by Sen Genshitsu, …

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Meibutsugire part 4 Kanto

Fabrics with stripes, plaid or checked patterns are called kanto. There are different reasons why fabrics with certain patterns can be considered kanto fabrics, and no clear rules exist for classifying them.

In the 16th centry, when kanto fabrics were introduced into Japan, the striped and checked patterns felt new and fresh to chajin (Tea …

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Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/meibutsugire-part-4-kanto/

Meibutsugire part 3 Donsu

Donsu , a damask satin. like kinran, comes in a great variety of patterns. It is a thick, lustrous fabric made of silk. It is not as dazzling as kinran, but rather has a quiet kind of beauty. The design is integrated into the ground and does not protrude from the surface of the cloth, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/meibutsugire-part-3-donsu/