October month in tea ceremony (English post)

For tea ceremony, the month of October is a month with special details that are used exclusively during this time of the year.

I speak about oita and nakaoki.

Oita is a lacquer wooden shelf larger than shikiita that it's placed under furo.
It is used like a tana and also hishaku and futaoki are placed on it.

Nakaoki is a setting mode with furo in the middle of the tatami and mizusashi on the left side. It's common to use an hoso mizusashi. With this setting change a little the position of the other toys. 

And now some photos of hoso mizusashi

In this month, for Omotesenke School, is often used a particular chaire, called akoda, with the design of a gourd. 

Mawaribana -廻り花 (English post)

September is the right month to do Mawaribana: one of the "Seven Lessons".
In this lesson all the students and also the host make a little chabana with the flowers provided by the School and make a composition usually inside a three windows bamboo hanaire.
To give you an idea I took from Internet he below picture so you can see a typical setting.

All the students and the host alternate themselves to make a little floral composition and repeat this for three times changing the first compositions with the latest until the end of the lesson. 

The host come in the room doing sorè with the tray of flowers set up as in the top picture. Then she goes to set it inside tokonoma where it will be set up an empty hanaire but with the water inside. 

The students, starting from the first, will turn to create small chabana, filling each one window of the flower pot and helping themselves with knife to cut the flowers at the right height. Then it will be the turn of the host and again the students up to three cycles. It is normal to different compartments according to the cycle as it's normal the it once the flower pot is full, the students or host must remove flowers to replace their small composition. At the end the host will pour some water inside each window and take away the tray with the flowers not used, waste and the discarded flowers that the students have taken out of the flower pot. 

  

It's important to remember some basic rules:

1) the flowers are first adjusted on the hands and not directly in the flower pot, and this is also true for measuring the right height of the composition. 

2) Care should be taken when cutting the flower's stems with the knife because it is usually very sharp and it is very easy tu cut ourself. 

3) First remove the previous flowers and the pick the new flowers and create composition. In the tallest compartment, if possible, try not to let the flowers out of the topo but only from the "window". Higher flowers usually go to the upper compartment. 

4) It is possible to use the same flowers in different compositions but the variety is preferable.

5) Once you remove an old composition or relay on the trimmings of the stems of the used flowers, you should care to put them next to the other flowers on the tray, try to bring them together as in a "single deck".

6) The tray is carried with two hands holding it on both sides. 

7) When making floral composition you follow the simple rules of chabana.

Below a picture of a beautiful painting that shows just this lesson. 

Chakabuki: the game of tea (English post)

For Rikyuki (the commemoration of Master Sen no Rikyu), the seventh generation of descendants of the Master  has created the "seven lessons" or seven kinds of different activities related to the tea ceremony lessons that many students can perform actively and simultaneously. These lessons were created because it was increasing the number of students and it became impossible to make their class without sacrificing a few.

One of these lessons is chakabuki or tea game. During this lesson, there are five students doing the classic roles of master, assistant and three guests.
The master prepares two koicha tea bowls by two different containers corresponding to two famous historical tea, marked on a slate at the tokonoma, and flanked by a third-defined type "other".

Guests looking to memorize these two teas and the teacher begins to prepare other cups koicha doing sample a total of three additional cups. Guests task is to identify the name of the latter three cups of tea and identify them on a piece of paper that will be delivered to the assistant which has the task of their transcription on a large sheet of washi paper.

Each guest choose a piece of paper, wrote earlier, corresponding to what he believes to be the right kind of matcha, then fold it back on itself and closes it in an envelope marked with the number of tasting, while storing the other sheets in the first folding fan.

It's a kind of very fun lesson that allows you to deal with the complex tasting of different types of matcha, which is also very complex for more experienced students and teachers.

Rikyuki: chanoyu of Sen No Rikyu commemoration

Like most of those who do already tea ceremony know, Sen no Rikyu is the founder of "modern" Japanese tea ceremony, the chanoyu as we know it today. He is, of course, the key figure, for all chado practitioners and was a man of great respect.

During its anniversary he is commemorated with a special tea ceremony called Rikyuki 利 休 忌 who often adding some variations as the seven lessons which I will discuss in depth in other posts.

There is much confusion on the exact day of the commemoration of Sen No Rikyu depending if you see the ancient calendar or the modern, some are celebrating at the end of February while others at the end of March.

I respect the commemoration date used by Omotesenke School to which I belong: on March 28.

Using commemorate our "founder" doing to its image in the scroll, hanging in the tokonoma, an offer of a ritual tea bowl. This bowl is prepared as you would the noble or important monks (he was actually a monk), namely with the aid of a pedestal to put under the cup, called tenmoku dai. The bowl that we use is, infact, a strictly tenmoku style bowl in black or white. After the teacher has prepared the bowl she system it out of its tatami where the first guest take it to bring in the tokonoma, as an offering to the Master.

After we complete this procedure we do the usual ceremony of tea usucha where all guests are served.

This occasion is not only important for the technical gestures, but also, and above all, to remind us that we are following the way: a way that is only superficially technical, but in reality is more complex if you want to live every day with the right spirit of chado practitioners.

Drinking koicha to wait for robiraki (English text)

November is a very intriguing month. 

I deeply love the Fall: nature becomes more intense and tinged with warm and cool colors that invite to close in tea room where the barely audible crackle of burning coals welcome as an irresistible call. 

At this time, over a cup of koicha, is easier to meditate on life, nature and the lessons that only the Way of Tea manages to impart. 

Whit my koicha, today, I began to think about what is the focal point of November for every follower of Chado: robiraki. 

Robiraki is the opening of ro (winter brazier) which coincides with the month of November and with the opening of chatsubo for the first tea of the season. 

The opening of ro and chatsubo should be made, according to tradition, 88 days after it's closure. 

Robiraki takes so much work, but the "installation" of the first coal it is also a great satisfaction and marks the beginning of the winter season and the friendly brazier located in the middle of the room. 

Above and below there are some techniques photos of how to drink koicha and to clean  the cup after drinking. 

Prendendo un koicha in attesa di robiraki (Italian text)

Novembre è un mese davvero intrigante. 

Io amo profondamente l'autunno: i colori della natura diventano più intensi e si tingono di colori caldi e i primi freddi invitano a chiudersi nella sala da tè dove il crepitio appena udibile dei carboni roventi ci accoglie come un irresistibile richiamo. E' in questi momenti, davanti a una tazza di koicha, che risulta più facile meditare sulla vita, sulla natura e sugli insegnamenti  che solo la Via del Tè riesce ad impartire.

Con il mio koicha, oggi, ho cominciato a pensare a quello che è il punto focale del mese di Novembre per ogni seguace del Chado: robiraki. 

Robiraki è l'apertura di ro (braciere invernale) che coincide con il mese di Novembre e con l'apertura di chatsubo per il primo tè della stagione. L'apertura di chatsubo dovrebbe essere fatta, secondo la tradizione, 88 giorni dopo la sua chiusura.

Robiraki richiede tanto tanto lavoro, ma la "posa" del primo carbone da anche una grandissima soddisfazione e segna l'inizio della stagione invernale con l'accogliente braciere posizionato nel mezzo della stanza. 

Sopra e sotto alcune foto tecniche di come si beve koicha e come si pulisce la tazza di koicha dopo aver bevuto (seconda la tecnica Omotesenke).

Haigata without charcoals! (English text)

The word "haigata" in Japanese means the arrangement of ash (specific ash for the use in tea ceremony) inside the brazier, both summer and winter.

The ash is very important because it serves as the basis of the above charcoals and also has a nice aesthetic effect.

Put the ash is a complex art in the ceremony since each type of grate has a different form of ash.

The ash is first basted and then, once given a summary form, it is "smoothed" with appropriate tools. 

Usually with electric coals you can not use the ash and that is a shame because you lose a lot of aesthetic of the brazier.

However doing a lesson, to save money and time, we use the fake coals to have the appearance of true of true coals and light up just as the red - hot - coals but they are made of synthetic materials and emit light and heat due to electricity.

I recently discovered a system in order to use the ash with synthetic charcoals could also make a "partial" haigata. 

There are the "plates of fake coals" electrical which can be inserted in a protective disk enable you to put the ashes in the edge you can put it appropriately smoothing (not, unfortunately, be able to get all the traditional forms required by the various types of braziers).

I haven't yet a maekegawara (half moon ceramics that plugs into the ash in front of the embers) suitable for furo cast iron (should be orange ) so I had to adapt with my white one.
Here in these photos there are some examples of what as been the end result that has me very satisfied.