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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Guests dressed in traditional kimonos participate in the ceremony of the Mushanokoji school of tea at the Azumaya Tea House at Hakone Gardens.

Fit to a Tea

Ceremony at Hakone Gardens revives centuries-old tradition

By Kelly Hsiao

Sixteenth-century tea master Sen Rikyu w

as once asked what the perfect Way of Tea entails, and his answer was simple--the perfect Way of Tea is merely about creating the perfect setting for the moment of enjoying that perfect cup of tea.

It has been more than 400 years since the master of the Urasenke school of tea died, but his Way of Tea, or the tea ceremony, is still alive, and modern day tea practitioners are eager to share their living art with the world.

For the past six years, the tranquil setting of Hakone Gardens has been the site of one of the larger tea events in Bay Area. The Hakone Daichakai brings together tea masters and practitioners from four different schools of tea as they each invite participants to take part in one of the different types of tea ceremonies that each school has.

"This is one of our signature cultural events, and it is gaining momentum and spreading enthusiasm throughout the Bay Area about Japanese culture," says Lon Saavedra, executive director of the Hakone Foundation. "This year was exceptional, and people were so enthusiastic. This is the most successful tea event we have had in the Bay Area in years."

This year's Daichakai brought together the Omotesenke, Urasenke, Mushanokoji and the Yabunouchi schools of tea, each performing its own variation of the tea ceremony, bringing Japanese aesthetics and culture together.

"The tea ceremony is an art form," says Urasenke tea practitioner Emiko Yamada. "Not only is the preparation of the tea an art, but there is an art to the way the flowers are arranged, the setting it is in and even in the ceramic and lacquer pots and cups that are chosen."

Introduced to Japan in the ninth century by Buddhist monks, the Japanese tea ceremony is a traditional ritual that has continued to evolve throughout the centuries. The tea ceremony is something that takes years and years to master, and even being a guest at a traditional ceremony requires the knowledge of gestures and of the way to take the tea and sweets offered.

Aiko Tauchi, a practitioner in the Omotesenke school of tea, has been studying the art of tea for 30 years and has made it her life's study. The Omotesenke school in which she practices performs 586 different types of tea ceremonies for all different occasions, and she has mastered 400 of them.

Yamada feels the same way. She has studied the tea ceremony for 20 years and still learns something new all the time.

"This is a lifelong pursuit. You can study for 50 years and still feel like you have so much to learn," Yamada says.

There are several different schools of tea today, each with its own rituals and traditions for this formalized way of making tea. Within each different school, there are hundreds of different types of ceremonies.

"Over the years, tea masters have come up with their own variations of the tea ceremony," Yamada says. "Some variations can be as simple as the way the tea bowl is turned when served to the guest."

The Daichakai was a special opportunity for Tauchi to share her knowledge and love of tea with visitors who were able to take part in a traditional Chabako Yukidemae, or picnic style, tea ceremony.

Traditionally, the Chabako Yukidemae takes place outside in a picnic setting. Each person's tea utensils, pot and cup are placed in a small box, or chabako, then taken to a picnic site. The ideal spot is under a tree with heavy branches that the kettle can hang from over coals that are placed on the ground.

The tea gathering traditionally has four components: the Kaiseke, which is a meal of light desserts; the charcoal-lighting ritual; the thick tea ceremony and the thin tea ceremony. The thick tea ceremony involves the group sharing a bowl of green tea leaves ground into a fine powder and put directly into the hot water, then whisked with a bamboo brush. The thin tea, in which everyone receives his or her own cup, follows the thick tea.

"A normal tea gathering will take about four hours," Tauchi says. "It is an art that must focus on serving and preparing tea with open and sincere hearts."

When Edward Wang attended his first Japanese tea ceremony, he did not know what to expect, but he says he felt a harmony in that ceremony that inspired him to want to learn more about the traditions of the tea ceremony.

"There is a peace and tranquility involved in the tea ceremony," Wang said. "I have been doing this for four years and am still eager to learn so much more."

The Daichakai was an opportunity for Wang, who is a student of the Urasenke school of tea, to share what he has learned as he led his school's tea ceremony.

Next to a koi pond and under a sign that read, "Maple leaves are dancing in the autumn wind," Wang expertly prepared a thick tea for his guests in the traditional picnic style ceremony.

Los Gatos resident Peggy Heiman took part in Wang's ceremony with a group of her friends and says it was a truly special event.

"I thought this was better than the ceremony I attended in Japan," Heiman says. "This was a beautiful ceremony. When you travel you are not always surrounded by friends, and at this ceremony I was."

Jan Schmidek of Monte Sereno says she also really enjoyed the ceremony with Wang and although she attended one in San Francisco in the past, this ceremony was just perfect.

"You just couldn't have asked for a more beautiful setting than Hakone Gardens," Schmidek says.

For the tea masters and practitioners who make the tea ceremony their life's practice, there can be so much to learn, and often a lifetime is sometimes not long enough. But the sense of fulfillment they get in return is plentiful.

"For me, this is the only thing I know. I truly enjoy it and am still learning each day," Tauchi says.