The Way of Tea to be presented on 2010 Ohio Chinese Festival

I have accepted, with honor, an invitation to perform "The Way of Tea" (茶道 or "Tea Ceremony") at the 2010 Ohio Chinese Festival. Not only I'm going to demonstrate the traditional way of tea, but also I intend to introduce some easy but proper ways of enjoying tea on a daily base (in other words, occassions such as when you are working at your office, or on the way to go).

Session I. Tea in the Way of Tradition (Modified Kongfu Cha style)
Here you will see how teas are prepared and shared with friends in a more traditional manner. Such an event is called a Tea Gathering (茶會/茶席). Aesthetics is revealed through the communication with tea, tea wares, and with people. Calm down and awaken your mind in the dialog with tea! We are demonstrating something called "modified kongfu cha" style. As the name applies, we will use tools adopted in the 功夫茶 kongfu cha traditions, but with add-ons and changes.

Session II. Tea the Easy Way
Tea is not only for leisure. Tea is first a healthy beverage. But the point is how to drink tea in a healthy way! We will bring some modern tea utensils designed for convenient tea making. These utensils are widely available at the market. Using these tools, we can enjoy a cup of tea any where any time, and receive the health benefits of tea with ease and with grace! Improper manners of tea making and some heath concerns in tea drinking will also be discussed.

Pine needle motif on Japanese tea wares

The first time this motif caught my eyes was when I bought a tetsubin with kanji 松風(wind through pine trees) on one side and some "strange" design on the other. At that time, I wasn't sure that the needle like leaves are pine needles and the fruit like thing is a pine cone. Later on I learned that this motif is called 松葉絵 matsu-e(drawing of pine needles). Sometimes, pine cones, called 松ぼっくり(松毬), are also accompanied.

Two things we can learn from this motif. First, as the pine leaves are depicted not on branch but as separate pairs of needles, this motif indicates the season to be late autumn, when the pines shed some leaves on the ground. The falling leaves, just as the falling of sakura flower in Spring, give a sense of the transient beauty. Second, as the needles are paired, or in fascicles of two, we can tell that the dominant pines trees in Japan are probably those similar to Red Pines or Scots Pines in Europe. Or, at least these are the pines that caught the artists' eyes...

The following are a few more examples of the pine needles motif on Japanese tea wares. Note the first one, a tea caddy, has both needles and pine cone, similar to the tetsubin. The second one, a red tea caddy, has bamboo leaves and plum flowers -- thus it makes another popular motif Sho-chiku-bai (松竹梅 pine-bamboo-plum), or Saikan Sanyuu (歳寒三友), literally, "the Three Friends of Winter."





This is a 松葉絵銘々皿 (matsuba-e-meimeizara; "meimeizara" are small plates for individual helpings of food) and it has a more realistic depiction of the pine needles --

Playing the Song Dynasty Partaking Tea Method

Step 1


Step 2


Step 3

My first bowl of whisked tea in a new raku-yaki

A kuro raku-yaki (黑樂燒) tea bowl is usually used for koicha (濃茶) or "thick tea" in Japanese tea ceremony. However, I'm experimenting the Sung Dynasty style of whisked tea with a deep appreciation of the wabi (侘) teawares developed in Japan. With that in mind, the first tea execution with Ai-oi was in usucha (薄茶) style, or as I would call it: dian-cha (點茶)!




It was nighttime, and rainy and chilly outside. I held the bowl this way so I could see both the pale green froth inside and the red glaze flowing on the out-wall of the bowl...


then I drank the tea to the bottom! The special design at the inside bottom allows remaining liquid to be collected there, thus it projects another fascinating scene!

One thing that I was missing is a ceramic ewer for pouring hot water...

Ai-oi - A Raku Tea Bowl by Ko-raku

I just acquired a Rakuyaki (楽焼) tea bowl. The artist is Koraku (光樂).



It caught my eyes the first second I saw it, and I believed I was looking at a great master piece of a Raku ware, specifically, a Kuro Rakuyaki or 黒楽焼. The seller revealed that this bowl is made 40 years ago. A famous monk named Gensei Miyanishi, the superintendent priest of a Rinzai (臨済) temple, signed the wooden container box and gave the name Ai oi (相生) to this bowl. The meaning of the word Ai oi is rather ambiguous - as it is always for an Eastern mind! One way to render it could be "(the two) living in harmony." However, the Japanese seller gives "wooden root is divided into two truncks"! and therefore, suggests that this teaware is best to be used in Spring season.

Myōan Eisai (明菴栄西), the founder of the Rinzai School of Zen in Japan during 12th century wrote the famous 喫茶養生記 Kissa Yojoki, Treatise on Tea Drinking for Health. That was the oldest tea specialty book in Japan.

A similiar item by the same artist can be found being bid currently on Yahoo Japan (for 15,000円).

(茶道具　黒楽茶碗　光樂造　銘　庵の友　箱書　表　桐共箱)

A Pair of Old Japanese Teacups

Lawrence and his fiancee visited me two weeks ago, that was shortly before his moving out of Ohio. We first had a dinner together in a local Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn, which is one of my favorite. We then had several teas at my place, including that 17 year aged Dong ding oolong. I proudly showed out the two zisha teapots I newly bought. One is a Shuiping pot (水平壺, an imitation of the so called 文革壺 or Wen ge style); and the other the cute Wendan pot (文旦) presented in last post. Lawrence held them in hands and studies them for a while. His comments were possitive. We sat down and talked about the material, style, and about the saler of these pots.

The most exciting thing for a visit of teapal is of course his or her presents! Sometimes their mere precence is already the best reward, but this time I was truelly honored with two old Japanese teacups Lawrence brought me as gift!





The inside of the cups has a thin layer of clear and light greenish glaze with a fine crack appearance. The color is enhanced when tea poured into it. The outside is rough, slightly ribbed, but feels gentle and comfortable. At the base, you find a small seal (sort of blurred and unreadable to me).





Drinking tea out of these cups is an enjoyment. I quickly fall in love with them, and these days I have been sipping up a lot of Taiwanese High Mountain Oolongs with these two cups! Thanks, Lawrence.

A Cutie to Admire

Okay, I accept, I can't resist beautiful things. It's too difficult for me to not being absorbed to these objects. So, yes, basically I was just attracted by its beauty when I saw it.

The pot takes the shape of one of the prototypes of traditional kongfu teapots, 文旦 Wendan. 文旦柚 Wendan you is the Chinese name for Pomelo, a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia and widely cultivated in south China and Taiwan. A Wendan pot with a slightly narrowed top and a large bellyed base, is said, according to one view, to resemble this gracefully shaped fruit. The curved outline moving from the lid to the base particularly pleases my eyes.




(A wendan harvest festival in Bali, Taipei, Taiwan)

The characteristic decoration on the pot, imitating some Qing syle partial-glazed Yixing Zishawares, depics lotus growing out of mud under water without being contaminated -- a perfect analogy to the virtue of detachment from worldly affairs. Now-a-days, it is quite rare to find a glazed zisha teapot, especially a partial-glazed one like this. It is said that the glaze techniques applied to zishaware was developed to meet the sumptuous demand in the mid-Qing court, and thus a dead end fashion. It is criticized for its excessiveness at the price of diminishing the unique feature of zishaware, the permeability, which makes zisha the best media in communication with tea. However, the partial-glaze technique is forgivable, I think, for it makes the pot more appealing without suffocating it.



My first impression on this pot when it physically arrived in my hands (I bought it online) is delicacy. Rather thin walled and sized so tiny compared with most of my mid to large sized zisha pots, it finalized my knowledge of the so called 水平壺 Shui-ping hu fashion. This type of teapot, nearly fanatically favored in kongfu tea ceremony, usually comes with a standard volume of 120cc, more or less. No craftsman's seal can be found anywhere on the pot but it is inscribed with words "不與俗人仝 文旦" (lit. "Not mixed with vulgarians. Wendan") on the base. (仝=同)



A looking to the inside of the pot reveals a seam on the back wall. This can be, according to some convention, a sign for the pot being genuinely handmade (and thus more valuable). But again, it can't be taken as granted!



The pot is made of 朱泥 Zhu-ni or red clay for sure, because the color is vermeil and I can see fine wrinkles on the surface. A noticeable change of color can be observed after pouring hot water in and on it; and more remarkably, its color would turn into dark purple when the water vaporized on the surface of the pot.

So far, I've only tried two Taiwanese high mountain oolongs, namely, 金萱 jin-xuan and 梨山 Li-shan, in this pot, and it performed quite well to these lightly roasted teas.


(The pot, the last infusion, and the spent leaves of Lishan_

A sun-set reflection on your teapot?

I'm always fascinated by the transient beauty of water trace on the surface of a zisha teapot after pouring hot water on it -- a process of gongfu tea ceremony.



On this occasion, a village girl, carrying a basket on her head and led by a dog, appeared on the pot!