East West

Reflections on drinking tea the Japanese way

Dr..

Kamal Abdul Malik

June 24, 2022

I wrote a letter to a Japanese friend who was representing his country in the UAE, in which he replied: “...I still remember Salalah and your wonderful speech.

Yes, my friend, I still remember the subtropical nature there, the monsoon rains in the middle of a dry desert, and your words on the road to happiness and inner peace, wonderful memories and solace to myself lately.. I would like to resume my wanderings again whenever I recharge the batteries of the soul, I hope things settle down In a little while, the epidemic is brought under control so that we can meet and let me know what I missed about the great heritage of the Japanese nation.”

I found myself fascinated by the Japanese traditions of tea drinking, traditions that made the simple task of preparing a drink for a guest an art form.

“Chado” in Japanese, is the art of preparing and serving dried green matcha tea, and the tea ceremony is one of the classic arts in Japan, an art that may date back to the year 815. In that year, the monk Icho returned from China, to introduce the Japanese to the tea that was a drink In China for more than 1000 years.

By the 16th century AD, drinking tea became common among all levels of Japanese society.

When I was a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal, I attended a Japanese tea party.

We took off our shoes before entering the waiting room of the tea house.

Our hostess was a beautiful young Japanese woman in komono who greeted us with a silent bow.

We had to "purify ourselves spiritually".

Since we were a group of students and professors and belonged to the different sects of bees, we did not know how one of us could “purify himself spiritually”.

Pointing to a stone basin, she said, we should wash our hands and mouths before entering a tatami room, where we would be expected to comment on the decoration in the windows or on the arrangement of seasonal flowers.

She calmly and deliberately told us that the four principles underlying the tea ceremony are: harmony, respect, purity and calm.

She then showed us a number of specialized utensils, including a chawan tea pot, a bamboo ladle for dried tea, and a chasin tea whisk, also carved from bamboo.

It was strange for us - coming from Arab societies - to see our hostess start the party by cleaning the utensils in front of us with utmost precision. This cleaning and careful preparation we do in the kitchen.

Then I finished making tea in a kettle over a coal fire with equal attention to detail, and poured the final drink into a bowl like a soup bowl and handed it to the first guest among us.

The recipient raised the bowl as a sign of respect for the tea master, meditated on it and inhaled its steam, then took a sip, praising the tea master for the taste of the tea and the beauty of the bowl.

Each of us meditated, inhaled, and sipped our tea for hours that we did not feel passed.

At that time, we were reading the serious scientific studies of the Japanese Arabist Toshihiko Izutsu (1914-1993), who was fluent in more than 30 languages, including Arabic, Persian and Greek, and we marveled at his ability to focus and persevere until he explained to us that he was raised on the teachings of the classical traditions of Japan, such as the arrangement of Kudu flowers and tea drinking rituals that require concentration, deliberation, and contemplation of the beauty of life and the splendor of existence.

 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University 

To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.