Early July update – A Midorikai interlude

I can’t believe it’s been just three and a half months since I’ve arrived here in Kyoto! Our days have been so busy that it feels like both an eternity and a flash when I think over everything I’ve experienced! Thank you for continuing to read my posts/emails. I have been enjoying writing them and hopefully you are getting a glimpse of my life here in Kyoto. My first semester is coming to a close on July 15th and my sempai will be departing for their respective countries to return to their families and their lives. I’m receiving from them a mix of both excitement for being able to return to their families as well as nostalgia that the year has already finished. “The days are long but the years are short.” All three of my wonderful sempai have proven themselves to be patient, wonderful teachers who will inspire me to work hard and always try to be a little bit better each day. I’m sure the rest of my time here I will hear their voices in my head reminding me to do things a certain way. I’m nervous about becoming a sempai myself in September when the new kohai students arrive, but I am excited and hopeful for a harmonious group.

And now, for early July happenings:

Chinowa

June 30: Nagoshi no Harai at Kamigamo Shine

To say farewell to the first half of the year and pray for a great second half of the year, I visited Kamigamo Shrine for the Nagoshi no Harai ceremony. You do this by walking through a large grass ring, called a chinowa. If you want additional protection and to remove the evils that reside in you, you can purchase a piece of paper or a stick of wood that you can write your name and age on and that will be ritually purified by the Shinto priests in either fire (wood) or water (paper). I stayed of the purification process, and was struck by how lovely it was seeing the burning fires and the hundreds of little paper people floating down the stream. Also, since I’m a woman of the age of 32, I am in the midst of my particularly unlucky Yakudoshi year (it’s actually counted as age 33, because the Japanese historical charts began counting with age 1 when you are born). These unlucky numbers were important in the Heian period but still hold significance today and people often wear additional talismans and protection during these years. If you want additional information on Yakudoshi there is some great information on wikipedia. In the mean time, I bought a little talisman for 800Y that you carry around with you that is supposed to offer additional protection. At the end of the year, you return it to the shrine where you purchased it and they ritually dispose/cleanse the item of it’s impurities. I have it on my purse. I don’t know how much I believe in numerology and such things, but I thought it couldn’t hurt. 🙂

Ritual burning

July 5: Seichuki

Seichuki

Every year, the Urasenke family holds a memorial celebration for three deceased grand tea masters: Gengensai, Ennosai and Mugensai (also known as Tantansai). These three masters (11th,13th and 14th generation respectively) all made a profound impact on the survival and development of Urasenke during historically difficult times for Japan. They were very innovative and creative thinkers and were able to include a lot of new codified tea procedure and attract many new types of people to Chado. Now, you may notice that the 12th generation is missing from this list. Usually he isn’t given much credit for maintaining the Urasenke lineage. However, this year was the 100th anniversary of Yumyosai’s passing, so we were treated to many articles of dogu that he favored. I’m always a fan of the underdog, and so it was nice to see poor forgotten #12 be recognized! Everything went smoothly and it was a very nice event. I wasn’t able to take any pictures during this event, but this is a nice one of the group I moved with during the seki. We all look very nice in our summer formal kimono.

Tanabata

July 7: Tanabata

The second year students hosted an event for Tanabata, 7/7. This is based on a Chinese story about a weaver-maiden who fell in love with an ox-herder and who stopped weaving to be with him. The gods grew angry with their laziness, and so they separated them so only on the night of July 7th, if it’s a clear evening, can the two cross over and be with each other just that one night. Very romantic. The students did a lovely job combining modern with traditional. We each wrote a wish and hung it on a bamboo tree that they put in the tokonoma. They also had a beautiful idea of doing a synchronized tea serving, where it was a large seki (40 people spread out over 3 tea rooms) and we were separated by a cloth in the middle. They served two rounds of sweets, two “first bowls” of tea, and had two first guests (one man and one woman). Then when the rest of the tea bowls came out from the back, the host’s side timed themselves to move together to serve us! It was just beautiful. At the end of the event, the host removed the cloth divider and invited us to “cross over” to view the other side’s tokonoma and mingle with each other. It was quite enchanting and gave me a new appreciation for how beautiful paying attention to timing can be. They did a wonderful job. Here is a picture of me standing in front of the tokonoma with all of the guest’s wishes written on it.

Local tanabata event

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Suspended animation

I recently was invited to a chaji put on by one of my students.  It was a memorable event as all chaji are, and this one kind of blew my socks off.  While it didn’t adhere strictly to a Japanese chaji, the meal was exquisite with a Northwest twist of local fresh ingredients. The sweets were heavenly.  Everything was meticulously planned.  Seating arrangements were congenial, and the guests, many who had not been to a chaji before, were up for an adventure.  Over the course of the evening, people began to talk with other people sitting with them and bonding among the guests began to occur during the meal.  By the time tea was made, the sun had set, and the stars and candle light set the stage for one of the most captivating tea experiences.

It was an event when you go to a place where time doesn’t matter, there is only NOW.  But the rest of the world continues on totally oblivious to your suspended animation.  I was talking, eating, drinking and never noticed the passage of time.  When you come out of wherever you have gone to be totally present, sometimes it is a shock to come back to the world and realize that 3-4 hours have passed. In this case it was more like 6 hours.  It is a shock to think I haven’t checked Facebook the whole time I was there.  I didn’t follow the political campaign. I didn’t even check in with work. And while I came in the afternoon, it is past midnight now.

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes the mental state of flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” In addition, positive psychologists argue that achieving the flow state on a regular basis is a key component of happiness. That is, by learning how to enter the state of flow you can increase your productivity, be more creative, and be happier, all at the same time.

How to enter the flow state, the state of suspended animation?  Why attend more chaji of course!

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June update #2 – a Midorikai interlude

June 11: Hotaru Chakai

We had the honor of attending the Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine. The natural beauty of this Shinto shrine with it’s proximity to the creeks and rivers makes it a great habitat for fireflies. Midorikai was invited to attend since Urasenke was putting it on and some of us went in kimono and in nice western clothes. Two of us were lucky enough to run into Daisosho-sama out in front of the shrine. He is always so gracious and generous. I can’t say enough how much he inspires me to be a better person. He treated us to ice cream cones from a stall where a past gakuen graduate was working. I’m reminded again of how small the tea world is! Everyone knows everyone! What another reason to continue to work on my Japanese. There were lots of fireflies to see and this was my first time ever seeing them. Quite amazing and magical.

Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine

Hotaru Chakai at Shimogamo Shrine

Other highlights from mid-June:

  • A field trip to Nakajima Seikodo, a local scroll making and paper-mounting shop. It was a beautiful workshop with lots of old beams. A scroll takes about a year to cure and we talked about all the different types of scrolls and their formality.
  • Midorikai’s first cooking class with Sato-sensei. It went very well. We focused on the basics our sempai would need to master to work in the kitchen for the upcoming chaji, tea gathering. We younger students tried to pay as much attention as we could since we are unsure when the next cooking classes will be.
  • A field trip to Nishiki covered market with Murata-sensei to show our sempai where to purchase food items needed for the chaji. We kohai just walked around and tasted food samples. It was a pleasant morning, and again, trying to pay attention to everything.
  • Beginning to study/review the kazari temae, the tea making practices when you have special tea utensils that has a wonderful story that you and the guests have in common with each other.
  • Kodo (Incense) lesson with playing “listening to kodo” games. When you smell the incense, (this is called “listening”) and you have to decide if it smells like the other incense or if it’s unique. It’s a skill, for sure. But also people receive pleasure because you don’t only write your answer, you relate the answer back to literature or natural phenomena. For example, in the game of Kotoriko, your answers are reflected by the names of small birds. So if I think the third and the fifth ko are the same, then I would answer “asaridori” (foraging birds). If the 1st and 2nd match, I would answer “momochidori” *hundreds of plovers” and so on. The other ko game we played related to “The Tale of Genji” and had 52 possible responses that were the titles of the chapters from that old novel. Very fun!
  • A half-day lecture on conducting tea demonstrations outside of Japan in our home countries. Two English-speaking sensei (Makela-sensei and Hardy-sensei) helped us with this. Our sempai were the ones giving the speeches and we were the audience or the guests. It was a really great opportunity to practice and I look forward to practicing too. They gave great feedback and some pointers for next time. In Portland we are responsible for doing tea demonstrations with Margie-sensei sometimes, but often it’s because people are busy and collecting the feedback will really help us get better.

    Awesome small door at cafe

    Awesome small door at cafe

June 21: Fabric lecture

I gave this lecture it’s own section, because my sempai Kate is interested in fabrics and it made me think of her. The fabrics we use as humans are diverse to say the least. This lecture really only focused on the fabrics suitable for tea. We talked about the different threads and how they are woven (for example, plain weave 1-1 thread, twill weave 2-2 thread, or satin weave 4-4 thread). But I also wanted to record how the fabric instructor told us to evaluate and enjoy fabrics. These questions and observations can be applied when you are admiring ANY man-made object whether it be refrigerators to vases to bedsheets. The more you really look at objects and research about them, the better informed consumer and connoisseur you will be AND the more beautiful the world will seem around you. Here are the questions that he encouraged us to reflect on to really be able to SEE an object:
  • What is it’s name and all the names of the components? What is the shape’s name?
  • What is it’s history? Who designed it or manufactured it? What world events or historical trends may have shaped this object?
  • How is it made? Look closely. Does it look “well-made” or “poorly-made”?
  • How do the components interact (color, design, etc.)?
  • Study the base materials, what is it made from?
  • Touch the object. How does it feel to the hand?
  • Does it generate an emotional response? If so, reflect why.

June 23: Toinseki Chaji

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures during the chaji, like a good guest, so I am attaching some pictures of Toinseki from the day before during our cleaning / prep-work day. A chaji is the longest type of tea gathering. All of the things we are learning are supposed to help us host and be guest at these special tea gatherings. They have themes and are about four to four and a half hours in length from arrival of your guests to when they depart. It requires weeks, if not months, of pre-planning by the host and there are many selections to be made regarding food that will be served, utensils that will be used and creating a harmonious environment between both guest and host as well as amongst the guests themselves.

Toinseki tea room

Toinseki tea room

At the most you might have five guests. To host chaji successfully you really can’t be a procrastinator or a control-freak. It requires a flexibility and willingness to go with the flow, but also the forethought that you have planned for many outcomes. You don’t want to arrive at a venue to realize that you forgot to bring the fish from the refrigerator back home! Anyway, this was our first “real Japanese” chaji.
We may have attended chaji in our home countries but it’s hard to understand necessary adaptations outside of Japan if we haven’t gone through a real one. Yumiko, our sempai from Hawaii, was our host. She is the most experienced of all of us since she has been doing and teaching tea for 25 years and is incredibly passionate. She was a wonderful host and we all had a fabulous time. The meal was attractively presented and tasty having been prepared by our other two sempai in the kitchen (just two! They were pretty stressed!). The kaiseki meal, as I explained previously, has many courses and requires impeccable timing to make sure it arrives hot to the tea room and perfectly fresh/cooked. The charcoal laying temae were both lovely. The tea and sweets tasted delicious.
Toinseki garden

Toinseki garden

I’m hesitant to describe too much because I want it to exist in my memory. Everything in the room had a purpose and was there for a reason for us to admire, contemplate, discuss and enjoy. I will comment on some specific things. She had many references to fireflies, since we all attended the Hotaru chakai together earlier this month. The scroll in the tea room was “Kan” or Gate, which referenced the comings and goings of midorikai, she would be exiting and we had entered the gate. She used a rock as her miagawara, or furo plate, instead of the usual smooth one. She scooped her tea in the natsume in sort of a Z shape (instead of just straight down the side) to resemble a river and make us think of coolness.

Even though Toinseki is located on the outskirts of Kyoto, it really felt we were far away in the mountains somewhere with the little birds chirping madly in the green garden. It’s difficult to explain how calm and relaxing an event like this can make you. Being in the tea room, you can really leave the world outside and just exist in that space and time. It allows for quiet personal reflection and also that thrill you get when you discover something that you didn’t see before. In the darkness of the tea room, light and shadow had more meaning than normal. We noticed things much more with having no distractions. It was just us (four guests, one host), in the small 4.5 mat room, sharing a special, unique moment together. It really reminds me how often we forget to just live in the moment and not become distracted by the past or the future but just be here now. In the chaji, all of us made mistakes (this was our first time after all) but nothing too serious. It rained in the morning, so it was dry but still moist. We didn’t get devoured by mosquitos and the sun was out by the end of the chaji. My only complaint was that it was ridiculously hot in the tea room in my polyester kimono and it was sometimes difficult to concentrate when you are that hot and the sweat is just pouring off you. I really enjoyed it and I hope there will be many more opportunities to go to chaji while I’m here in Kyoto! I was the tsume, or last guest, and I was glad to have that part so I could stand and stretch my legs occasionally.

The day before chaji, cleaning the garden in my samue

The day before chaji, cleaning the garden in my samue

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New 10 week Introduction to Chado class

chawanIntroduction to Chado Class
Starts on Wednesday, July13 7:00-8:30 pm

Students will learn the etiquette of how to be a guest at a tea ceremony, the basic order of the tea ceremony and how to whisk green powdered matcha ceremonial tea. Students will also participate in 6 Japanese tea ceremonies from informal to semi-formal tea gatherings. An overview of Japanese aesthetics and how the tea ceremony has influenced Japanese culture will be presented. Students will also be introduced to tea ceramics, calligraphy, kimono dressing, and incense ceremony. They will also be introduced to zazen meditation and discuss how to put tea practice into every day life.

Register early, places are limited. $50 deposit will hold your spot. Use the PayPal button at the right. Balance due at the first class.

Fee: $250, includes all materials, tea and sweets for 10 weeks

Location: The Jasmine Pearl Darjeeling room, 724 NE 22nd Ave., Portland, OR 97232

For more information contact Marjorie Yap, Instructor

Phone: 503.645.7058, Email: margie at issoantea dot com

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Early June update – Midorikai interlude

June 3- Kaiseki cooking class

We had a one-star michelin chef named Yamamoto Masanu of Sanyukyo come to teach us kaiseki cooking. We learned how to make rice in the old-style typical rice pot, daishi broth, miso and about five or so other things. This time he cooked and spoke while we watched and frantically scribbled notes and pictures to try and remember as much as we could. For westerners who have never eaten kaiseki before, I might describe it roughly as tapas quantity of food on your plate but with consideration of balance of flavors and appearance. The food should be attractive and taste great but may be just a few bites for each guest. However, there are many courses.
Mr. Yamamoto Masanu at our cooking class

Mr. Yamamoto Masanu at our cooking class

A kaiseki meal in terms of the tea world means just giving your guests a full enough stomach so when they enjoy the thick tea that follows the meal, they have something in their bellies so their tummy doesn’t get upset from the rich taste of the tea.

Coming up at the end of the month, our sempai will be putting on a full-scale chaji at a tea house. A chaji lasts for about four hours and is, I would say, the longest of the events that we do in the tea world. They tend to require a lot of knowledge from both host and guests and can be quite expensive as you need a lot of unique serving utensils, friends to cook in the kitchen while you serve your guests, and knowledge of seasonal food to make it happen.
Very few people outside of Japan have experienced these before and it’s difficult to learn from a book. That’s not to say that foreigners aren’t incredibly successful at putting on chaji, however, I am appreciative that I will be learning from the source, so to speak. I will be tsume, the last guest, and I have some tasks that I will need to do. I’m very excited to participate in one, as we will be doing our own for our kohai in the winter. We also will have a chance to rehearse our parts, which will be helpful. It’s nice to know what to do at any type of party! More on this event at the end of June!

June 6- Kenniniji Kenchashiki

We were invited by Daisosho-sama to attend the 802nd memorial at Kenninji temple for the founder, Yosai Zenji (1141-1215). Yosai (also known as Eisai) is a monk credited with bringing tea to Japan after visiting China. He also brought with him tea plant seedlings, which allowed for Japan to begin cultivating it’s own tea. It was fascinating, but I began to nod off after about the first hour of the monks chanting. Every time they would ring a gong or bell, people would sort of sit up straighter and then, after about five minutes, begin to slump again. Luckily for us, they had chairs to sit in. I have heard that they used to make people sit seiza on the tile floor, and that sure would have made it impossible to sleep! Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it’s hard to not fall asleep when it’s dark and warm and there is incense! Even if it happens to be really interesting.

Kenninji Temple from the outside

Kenninji Temple from the outside

In front of the earliest recorded tea garden (more like a patch) in Japan.

In front of the earliest recorded tea garden (more like a patch) in Japan.

June 9 – Omi Jingu Kenchashiki

Unlike the Kenninji offering (Buddhist), Omi Jingu is a Shinto shrine. Daisosho-sama also invited us to this event. During the reign of Emperor Tenji (661-671), a water clock which told the time with a drum or bell was placed in the Imperial Court for the first time. (Note: I’m unsure when the first clock was invented, however, this is the first time it appears in Japan’s recorded history) Thus it is called Time Day to make people aware of the importance of time. It’s interesting because time can have many meanings to a person, like it’s important to be on time, to be aware of our time here, how time seems to move fast or slow, etc. The concept of wanting to measure and quantify something like time is actually pretty human, when you think about it. It helps our world make sense and things start fitting nicely into little compartments in our heads. Like it’s noon now so I eat lunch, or it’s X’oclock so I should prepare for bed. That can be very comforting in building routine as well as communicating with others.
The fire drill practicing with the fire extinguisher

The fire drill practicing with the fire extinguisher

Inspirational words from these two weeks:

We had a lecture by both Daisosho-sama (age 93, retired grand tea master) and O’iemoto-sama (age 60 this June, current grand tea master). I’m so lucky to hear them speak and to learn from them. Here were some words that I frantically scribbled down that I want to share with you. These are recorded as my paraphrase of their 90 minute lectures. Note: The ideas I recorded seem disjointed, however, I tried to record the phrases that resonated most to me.

Daisosho-sama lecture:

There is so much around you that you can’t see. You are constantly being protected by that which you can’t see: spirits, the kindness of others, your ancestors. Please have an awareness that we are alive by the kindness of others. You have been given life, and so be thankful. Try to make yourself a better person every day. In the act of purifying yourself, those around you will be purified. Once we are born, we are all fated to suffer. We all have problems that we will have to figure out. We question why we are here and who we are. We should never compare ourselves to others or make ourselves feel inferior. You must walk your own way, even if you can’t see the path.

Open the eyes of your heart in order to really see things. When I walk in the dark, I may start by bumping into walls, but gradually I get used to it and can see. Humans are like this. Even when it’s bright people still can’t see what’s right there, what’s around us. Offer things to that which you can not see. Even if you have just one mouthful of food, offer it freely to be split with others. As long as the roof doesn’t leak and you have enough to satiate your hunger, you will be okay.

When I sit zazen, I follow it with chanting sutra and a prayer to the gods. Maybe that is why I live so long and with enough energy. Don’t do bad things, do good things. If you follow that, you will be okay. We all collect impurities. Every day, clean them, remove them, brush them away. If you can, you can open yourself, open your heart so that you can truly see. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but remember what I’ve said.

Nusa marking a sacred tree.

Nusa marking a sacred tree.

O’iemoto-sama lecture:

Don’t always look at the weather with judgement. For example by saying it rains too much or it’s too humid. Then you will only leave your room for 10 days out of every year. If you look only for the bad then you will always find it. After it rains and obscures the mountains, they are even more beautiful when the mist lifts. It becomes difficult to have these moments of clarity, so you must train at it every day. It’s like in baseball. If your team is losing at you are up to bat, don’t just let the ball pass without swinging. Something could happen if you just swing. Those who just see a loss and don’t try at that point, they miss an opportunity to learn. People will know that you are the kind of person that cares enough to try.

My amazing story for you:

During the daily morning chorei, we were chanting the heart sutra in Japanese. A little bird, most likely a skylark, sat on a branch right out in front of the window and sang and sang while we chanted. When we finished, it flew away. I can’t explain to you how amazing and inspiring it was to have this little bird perched so close to us that it was practically in the room, and hearing it sing and sing, blending with the sound of our voices. Overtaking us at some points and being overtaken. Such a small thing brought me such pure joy and astonishment.

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