Issoan Hatugama will not take place on Saturday, due to snow, freezing rain and temperatures in teens predicted for this weekend. Everyone stay home, stay warm, stay safe. We will reschedule Hatsugama to February 10, the Lunar New Year. Hope to see you then.
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/issoan-hatsugama-rescheduled/
Six poets gathered on New Year’s Day 2024 at Issoan to celebrate the New Year. We shared sake, tea tasting, snacks, matcha, sweets, lunch and incense appreciation during the day while composing a 28 stanza linked verse. I hope you like the entire poem.
Earth slowly rises
From winter slumber
In the sunshine
And freshness
On this New Year’s Day
On this New Year’s Day
Seasons turn with the year
Newborn sun warming winter’s blanket
The pitter-patter of snow drops
Joins into nature’s chorus
Joining into nature’s chorus
The trees are alive
In the early morning
With the sounds of joy
As the frost recedes
As the frost recedes
The earth thaws
Ground breaks and cracks
Slowly, rapidly, irregularly
Ready for change
Ready for change
The dark earth is
Newly revealed
Seeds reaching for the sun
Water nourishing life
Water nourishing life
Pitter patter
Soaking gently
Into the earth
Wafting scent of spring
Wafting the scent of spring
Carried tenderly
By the breeze
Our spirits rise
In anticipation
In anticipation
Pale rays bursting
Painting the cerulean sky
Rosy fingers warming
The awakening earth
The awakening earth
Warmed by the sun
Strengthened by the wind
Nurtured by the rain
Branches filled out to the end
Branches filled out to the end
Hopeful
For the year ahead
Filled with color
A crown of green
A crown of green
At ends of branches
Bamboo sprouting
In the forest
A brocade of new life
A brocade of new life
Winter’s cold
Gives way
A colorful quilt
Drapes across the land
Draped across the land
Trees laden with buds
And the early blossoms
Of plum and witch hazel
Calling us forth
Calling us forth
The buzz of activity begins
Tending the flowers
The brocade swelling
With the season’s tempo
With the season’s tempo
Blossoms slowly fade away
Increasing abundance comes
Budding fruit weighs the branches
As time and sun nurtures all
As time and sun nurtures all
Days lengthen
Night fades
Stars meet
As the year’s apex passes
As the year’s apex passes
Birds dance
Into the twilight
And then sleep in the trees
By the rice fields
The rice fields
Sway in the breeze
Stretching towards the sun
Gathering vitality
Lazy days
Lazy days
The wood dragon
Rests in the sun
Ripening with the wheat
Until-
Until-
Threshing begins
Golden silk
Falling in bunches
Songs echoing through the fields
Songs echoing through the fields
Gleaning birds follow the harvest
Corn stalks stack together
Empty skies darken
The coming autumn approaches
The coming Autumn approaches
Life slows and prepares for sleep
Ponders what has been
Dreams of what will be
The world slips into night
The world slips into night
We dream of running
Along a silver path
Rising in the sky
Bright light in darkness
Bright light in the darkness
Points of light sparkle
Infinite space
Cold and crisp
The air snaps
The air snaps
Sky readies itself
We don extra layers
Quilts and hats
Preparing for skyfall
Preparing for skyfall
Silence descends
A comforting blanket
As flurries dance and twirl
Behind our retreating backs
Behind our retreating backs
Weather chases us indoors
With red cheeks and cold toes
Under the kotatsu
We dream of things to come
We dream of things to come
Hopes and goals
The year returns to the start
Repeating, changing and evolving
Always beautiful
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/happy-new-year-in-poetry/
As we approach the solstice it seems like I am running downhill as things accelerate. Holiday plans, travel plans, baking, cooking, wrapping gifts, decorating; it all seems to go faster with less time every year as I get older.
This year I am certainly getting the feeling of growing older and approaching the time when I will no longer be able to do things physically as I once did. It has also been another year of losing friends, teachers, and colleagues who have passed away. I have always been the youngest teacher in my area, but a whole generation of sensei in their 80s and 90s are retiring, moving to be closer to family who will take care of them, and yes, passing away.
Facing the fact that I am in the Autumn of my life, I am thinking about what will happen to my tearoom, dogu, kimono, and students when I can no longer teach them. Making plans for the inevitable is never a pleasant thing to do, but I certainly don’t want to leave my spouse, kids, or grandkids with the dilemma of what to do with all the stuff they have no interest in.
This all leads me to think a little more deeply of the talk Oiemoto did when I was at the Midorikai reunion this summer. Out of the more than 500 people who have been through Midorikai, how many are still involved in tea? How many are actively bringing new people to tea? How many are teaching? How many are teaching the next generation of teachers?
As the number of teachers in my Tankokai went from about 16 when I joined, to only 3, I looked behind me and saw no new teachers coming up after me. Who will teach the next generation of teachers when we retire? It takes training a long time to become a teacher, plus discipline, dedication, time and money. It is a lifetime commitment to this passion.
In the coming year, I am calling on long time students of Chado to look at their practice and think about what will happen when your teacher retires or can no longer teach. If you have been to Midorikai, or have been studying for 10 years or more, how are you helping train the next generation of teachers? Are you assisting your teacher in ways that will prepare you to step up when they retire? Are you actively building your keikoba, introducing tea to new people, recruiting new students, and helping your kohai to advance in their studies?
I think it is not enough to just come to keiko every week, do your temae and leave. Sure, it is fun to participate in the intensives, reunions, and anniversary events, but are you helping to plan them, organize them, put on chaji, chakai and demonstrations? Who will put together Hatsugama? Your teachers do it now, but when they no longer do it, what will happen?
In the coming year, think about ways you can assist your teacher, deepen your own practice of tea, and assist others along the way. And if you think you might want to teach someday, let your teacher know. It might be time to step up and begin your training as a next generation teacher.
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/running-down-to-the-end-of-the-year/
photo credit: Alexandra Hughes
It is exciting to have new students develop a passion for tea. I have some new students who are so enthusiastic that they have been coming twice a week to keiko. One of them has a site, Storied Objects, that features artisan handcrafted ware with an aesthetic that appeals to many tea folk. She is also passionate about telling the stories of the artisans behind the products. Please go to the site and browse the products. You might just find something you are looking for. Christmas is coming!
As part of the backstories to the products on the site, there are interviews with the artists and photos of them in their studios and workshops. You really get to know the people behind the products and it makes them more meaningful, just as we tell the stories behind the dogu in tea.
The backstory to this student is that she contacted me for Chado lessons in 2020 after I closed the tea room due to Covid. As I was not taking beginners, I asked if she wanted to put on the mailing list to be contacted when the tea room opened up. For the next two and a half years, she periodically contacted me to ask if the tea room was going to open and that she was still interested in lessons. Within an hour of posting the new Introduction to Chado class, she signed up for 10 weeks of lessons. Then she signed up for another 10 weeks of lessons, and now she is coming twice a week for lessons.
It warms my heart to see her and my other new students hungry for learning about tea. It is not easy to begin lessons and feel like you will never get the hang of folding fukusa correctly, or not feeling like a cow in the tea room, or which foot do you enter and leave the tea room. With every new introduction of an aspect of the way of tea, they are eager, humble and willing to learn. Nothing is beneath them. They want to clean correctly, and do all the right things in the mizuya. The student wrote about her experience in the first couple of months of tea lessons here.
Photo credit: Alexandra Hughes
I am almost jealous that they are experiencing things for the first time. Making discoveries about how to move their bodies, how to look deeply at dogu, how to express gratitude, all while learning new things about themselves and how they relate to the wider world. The new students attended their first tea gathering at Robiraki last month and it was an event to remember. Putting it all together for a chaji is inspiring. It was so inspiring, I recall the first gathering, Robiraki, that I went to almost 40 years ago and how transformative it was for me.
If you have read this far, there is also an interview with me on the site as well.
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/storied-objects/
A couple of weekends ago, Mr. SweetPersimmon and I attended a festival not far from Portland, Oregon put on the the Kominka Collective. This non-profit organization’s mission is “to save old Japanese folk houses while preserving and passing on traditional carpentry methods.”
The word kominka refers to houses built at least 50 years ago and in particular to those built before the Taisho Period. Komika were constructed with high-quality local wood, including zelkova, sakura, chestnut, and cypress. These structures are characterized by traditional Japanese timber framing using broad beams and posts, ceramic tiled roofs, and a rustic yet elegant beauty. Japanese timber framing, used for wooden construction in temples, shrines, and folk houses, has many advantages, including strength, durability, and maintainability – as well as its elegant appearance.
The day was a celebration of traditional Japanese culture. It took place at Camp Colton, a picturesque camp about an hour from our house. The large lodge structure had booths showcasing traditional Japanese arts food and culture. During the day there were taiko and shamisen performances, calligraphy, tea ceremony, ikebana, demonstrations and workshops, origami for the kids, panel discussions, restoring tansu chest workshop, yakisugi (burnt cedar) demonstrations, traditional woodworking with tools and maintenance demonstrations.
One of the presentations by Kiyomi Koike of Kominka Life Coaching. The challenges facing her led her to the healing of Japanese tea, tea ceremony and embracing the mission of Kominka preservation. One of the first Kominka disassembled, shipped overseas and reassembled is in Enterprise, Oregon where Kiyomi lives and runs her business of importing green tea and coaching people “to help you live a life as your authentic self in the midst of life’s chaos.” Enterprise is located in rural Northeast Oregon, with spectacular scenery. You can book a stay in the restored Kominka.
Sora Shodo presented an energetic demonstration of big brush calligraphy to the beat of Tako Hach taiko drumming as well as a calligraphy workshop for adults and children.
Ikebana demonstration by Nana Bellerud was graceful and educational.
Besides the taiko drumming by Tako Hachi, the highlight for Mr. SweetPersimmon was the traditional Japanese tool workshop by Yann Giguere of Ashland, Oregon. Yann demonstrated how to use chisels and saws to carve intricate joinery in wood that is as beautiful as it is strong. The highlight of Yann’s presentation was tuning up the Japanese wood plane and producing translucent, thin shavings. He also let anyone who wanted to try to produce the perfect curling, continuous shaving.
And I certainly enjoyed my udon noodle lunch and strolling the campgrounds in the beautiful autumn weather. 
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/preserving-japanese-traditional-culture/
