Except for tea and the satisfaction it offers there is little else that is common between the drinking cultures of Japan and India. Whereas our cup is one of gay abandon the Japanese cup is brimming with protocol, precision and philosophy. Shuko, a tea master describes the Japanese tea ceremony or Chanoyu as “not an amusement, nor a technique but an enjoyment of enlightened satisfaction.”
The full ceremony takes almost half a day and comprises a meal and two servings of tea. There is prescribed decorum of communion between host and guests. Guests sit in designated places on tatami mats. Sweets are placed before them by the host after which he/she fetches the tea. Matcha or green tea powder is whisked into a frothy liquid and served. Every action from preparing the tea, to offering the bowl, placing and sipping the tea, conversation and appreciation of tea ware adhere to the principles of natural beauty and balance.
Buddhist monk practitioner Rikyu is credited with formulating the rituals of Chanoyu. His life ending with a ritual suicide is often narrated as part of this tradition. A shogun once wished to see the morning glories cultivated by Rikyu. He visited the gardens and found that all the flowers had been torn down but when he entered Rikyu’s tearoom a single morning glory was strategically placed in honour of the guest. The Japanese cult of tea aims beyond the tangible. It touches sippers with the Way of Tea, a path of spiritual attainment as professed in Zen Buddhism. Can we, even for a second, associate such propriety with the Indian tea drinking culture? No, because we are like this only.
