2014年10月19日日曜日

The Enjoyment of Tea

I read Sen Genshitsu Talks About The Enjoyment of Tea, written by Sen Genshitsu, and translated in English by Maya L. Perry.
The reason that I came to reading this book was an assignment of English class. I was searching some resources for my essay about tea ceremony, and I found this in the school library.

The author, Sen Genshitsu (1923-) is the former iemoto or head of the Urasenke school of Japanese tea ceremony. Urasenke is one of the main school of Japanese tea ceremony, which has been continuing for about 350 years. The history dates back to Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591), the Japanese historical person who perfected tea ceremony.

This book does not provide practical instruction, but rather deals with the spirit of tea with referring author's own experience.
For example, Sen Genshitshu remarks that transposition of guest and host occurs in a tea gathering. In other words, the guest becomes the host, and the host becomes the guest through tea.
The host never should think that "I'll show you" or "I'm doing this for you," but just think the guest and focus on doing one's utmost best to create a bowl of tea. Likewise, the guest should accept the invitation with all one's heart . That is transposition or consideration for each other. I was surprised to know that the author, the expert of tea too, rates himself after tea gatherings as; "My temae (performance) was only 65% today."

In another aspect, the author expresses his view as one who experienced warfare, through tea. With the hope that tea will provide peacefulness for people of the world, and Japanese spirit for the Japanese young generation, the author keeps spreading the spirit of tea.

The reason I chose this topic as the theme of the essay was partly because I belong to the tea ceremony club in the university. And next weekend, I will show my performance at the school festival.
I learnt many attitudes toward tea from this book, so  I want to practice these attitudes in every performance.