The Japanese Tea Ceremony Experience (English Text)

We have created a new experience valid both for Italians 

visiting Lucca and for foreign tourists.

Its name is The Japanese Tea Ceremony Experience.

You can book the experience directly by email (and pay 20 euros for person cash on arrival or with Paypal online payment) or book through the Airbnb site and pay 25 euros for person at booking by credit card.

Airbnb - The Japanese Tea Ceremony

The experience consists of meeting of about an hour in which a single person or a group of up to five persons comes to the headquarters of the Jaku Tea Ceremony School in Lucca (Piazza Curtatone 147) to immerse themselves in the magical atmosphere of traditional Japan and of the ancient art of Chanoyu. 

You will be welcomed by our Tea Teacher, dressed in the traditional kimono, who will give you a little theoretical introduction on the tea ceremony in Japan (in Italian, or foreign tourists, in English) and will then accomodate you in the tatami room to assist at the tea ceremony (moment of usucha or koicha at the guest' choice). 

You can sample a traditional Japanese dessert and drink a cup of matcha, ritually prepared. At the end of the ceremony, the Tea Teacher will answer all the questions and you can prepare another cup of matcha yourself!

To partecipate you need to book one day in advance. The days on which the ceremony takes place are Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday: you can choose a time between the following start times: 10.30/12.00/16.00/18.00/21.00, and Friday start times: 16.00 - 18.00 - 21.00.

Those who want to book must bring with them a pair of clean white socks to wear and the ladies must take off their jewelry and tie the hair if are long.

The experience is to sit on your knees, whoever has problem can let us know before so the School can arranges for a chair. 

It is an experience not to be missed in order to feel immersed in the atmosphere of traditional Japan in Italy!

Recensione della nostra cerimonia del tè coreana al Festival delle Camelie 2018

Questo è stato un anno molto importante perché, per la prima volta, abbiamo portato la cerimonia coreana del tè al Festival delle Camelie.
Abbiamo fatto ben sette giorni interi di incontri per un totale di 28 cerimonie e servito tè verde coreano a oltre 500 persone!

La cerimonia è stata realizzata in modo tradizionale con utensili coreani e l'hanbok, il vestito tradizionale della Corea.

Il tè, un meraviglioso verde biologico coreano, è stato anch'esso accompagnato da dolcetti tradizionali coreani freschi e cialdine orientali.
Sotto troverete il link alla recensione che ci è stata fatta.

Recensione

American review of our tea ceremony demonstration - Recensione americana della nostra dimostrazione di cerimonia del tè

Siamo internazionali!
La nostra dimostrazione di cerimonia del tè ha fatto il giro del mondo ed è stata recensita persino in America!

We're worldwide!
Our tea ceremony demonstration has been around the world and it has even been reviewed in America!

Orgogliosi con - Proud with:
Hitomi Matsumoto - Naoyoshi Itani - Hiromi Ogawara

Qui la recensione completa in inglese / Here the complete review in English:

Japan´s Glory at the Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte | Revista Ven América

Japan´s Glory at the Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte With the Original Tea Ceremony Viareggio (Versilia–Tuscany).– The Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte, based in…

REVISTAVENAMERICA.COM

Review: Afternoon tea at The Tower Hotel (London - England)

This is my first review about tea rooms, tea shops, tea ceremony experiences and teas in general around the world. 

Recently I have been to London and I have done a traditional afternoon tea in a very particular location: in front of Tower Bridge!

I have gone to The Tower Hotel Restaurant (Whitechapel, Southwark, The City, London) at 16.00 o' clock and I chose from the tea menu an Estate Darjeeling (Tea forte).

I  also enjoyed a tray (a very special tray in the shape of the Tower Bridge!) with some sandwiches, puddings and sweets.

On the tray there were:

CAKES

Pina Colada panna cotta with pineapple jelly and toasted coconut

Strawberry cheesecake with raspberry glaze

Rich chocolate, caramel ganache tart, pecan praline

Red velvet cupcake, vanilla cream, cheese frosting

Macarons

SCONES with strawberry jam and cornish clotted cream

FINGERS SANDWICHES

Cucumber and cream cheese

Egg mayonnaise and watercress

Smoked salmon and dill cream cheese

Honey roasted English ham and granary mustard mayonnaise

Chicken mayonnaise and avocado

The view were the most beautiful thing to vote in this afternoon tea. Also the sweets and sandwiches are very good and there were a nice variety. There were food choices for vegetarians (well marked on the menu) but there were no choice for vegan. 

The negative points were: 

- tea, even in leaf, was only in teabag and there wasn't a large choice

-the tea room was nice but not very elegant

-the maids were too busy and did not pay attention to us. 

I assign them 4 stars (on a scale from 1 to 5 stars) because, in general, it was a beautiful experience. 

Dimostrazione di usucha all'Hotel Principe di Piemonte

Come avevo già accennato, il 20 Gennaio 2018 ho fatto una dimostrazione della parte di usucha della cerimonia del tè giapponese presso il Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte di cui vedrete sotto alcune fotografie.

Sono rimasta estremamente soddisfatta della grandissima presenza di pubblico: alla fine della cerimonia, infatti, abbiamo servito una degustazione di ben oltre novanta tazze di tè matcha!
Il pubblico si è dimostrato estremamente educato prestando il giusto silenzio durante l'esecuzione della cerimonia ed ha, invece, partecipato in maniera attiva dopo di essa, facendo numerose domande ed interventi.

Devo ringraziare, per l'ottima riuscita, la direzione dell'Hotel e la Presidentessa dell'Associazione Ville e Dimore Storiche della Versilia che si è molto prodigata per aiutarci, inoltre è stata fondamentale la presenza, in qualità di ospiti e aiutanti di  Hitomi Matsumoto San, Hiromi Ogawa San e Naoyoshi Itani San.

Non posso che ritenermi felice dell'esito di questa manifestazione che spero di poter presto ripetere anche in altre location.

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.

Camellias Festival 2017 - Tsubaki Matsuri 2017 (English post)

As already know from my previous post, also this year, we were guests of the Camellias Festival (Tsubaki Matsuri) in Sant'Andrea di Compito (LU) to make  chanoyu demonstrations, open to the public, in the wonderful frame of the floral park of Villa Orsi.

We did three demonstrations for day for two Saturdays in consecutive weeks; the first Saturday we simply arranged with a pedestal tatami and a furo. Guests sat around on simple benches equipped with tables and the set was decorated with a classic Japanese umbrella. The last Saturdays, however, we managed to set up a "treppiedi" stand of bamboo from which to tilt the chains that would support the kama, according to the classic outdoor setting, and then we have done our demonstration in the "winter brazier version ".

They were attended by many guests, both times, of all nationalities, and for us this has been a source of great pride. I leave you now with some photos.

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.