Tea Ceremony Utensils

One of my wife's acquaintances is a ceramic artist, and he currently presents an exihition of his tea ceremony utensils. My wife and I visited there today. There are various utensils ranging from tea cups, calligraphy mounted on a hanging scroll to flower vases. Besides, I could attend a tea ceremony in which the artist's utensils were used.

Tea and a Japanese-style confection were good taste. In addition, talkings with the artist was also good. On the other hand, I found myself not to be relaxed because the tea ceremony was conducted according to traditional manners.

About 5 years ago, I read "The Book of Tea" written by Tensin Okakura. The book introduces and explaines an essence of a Japanese tea ceremony. The book was easy to read, but at that time difficult to understand what the author wanted to express. I forgot the details, but I remembere that the author said "The tea ceremony can create a small cosmos among a mind of the attendees."

The tea ceremony utensils which I saw were good ones. Textures and structure of, and paintings on the utensils seemed to be all based on the traditional manner. By seeing and surrounded by them, I sensed as if I had not lived in the modern time. I mean that I could drop the concept of time at a single moment.

Busy is good, and nothing to do is wrong. This scheme is easy to be accepted in the modern developed society. However, looking back on the Edo era (about 150 years to 300 years ago), tea ceremonys were common among samurais. Although the level of science and technology in the Edo era were lower than in the modern era, the cultural levels and the hearts of human-beings seemed not to be lower than in the moder era.