Japanese Tea Ceremony

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18545, 3 November 1934, Page 10

Japanese Tea Ceremony

j-N the countries of the West, tea is A merely a liquid refreshment to be taken with meals, or as an excuse for a rest and a gossip in the midst of the .uTcrnonn \s activities. But in Japan the “ten ceremony” stands for niue'i more than that, it has been, for some •entiiries, the core of a well-establish-ed social system.

Professor A. L. .Sadler examines the , ignition rice of Cha-No-V u-tt-oi 1 1 to.i,sm,” as sonic other writers have called it—in a highly interesting way in ;he introduction to his recently-pub-lished book on the subject.

Ten drinking began in-China among the Zen monks, who used ii as a method of preventing sleep. When it was adopted by the Japanese, it remained at first a diversion of the wealthy and' retired classes. But the strong,' centralised administration of the Tokugawa shoguns used the “ tea ceremony” as a means of instilling into the minds of people at large a lively social and aesthetic consciousness.

The principle of “lea-ism” is that all personal display is vulgar arid undesirable! As Professor ,Sadler remarks, “If harmony and etiquette are lucking in the meal that is taken three times a day) and in entering and leav ing the room, and making up the tire, and so on, there is not. much likelihood of their being found elsewhere. What tea-ism has done for Japan,” (he goes on.) “may be seen from the contrast in other lands where any, such discipline aestheticism is unknown. Lack of taste and balance in decoration, a confused' ostentation and want of any system of etiquette permeating all classes of society, have been and still are very noticeable in t he West and in America, and practically all visitors '<• Japan seem to be struck by the strange phenomenon that good man tiers are as natural to the peasant and workman us to the. leisured classes.” Trees. (Germany is embarking on extensive experiment's in the production of food fia.in forest trees. —Gable.) f,think that t shall never see A toothsome dish made from a tree. A tree which lifts Its branches high Would not make appetising pie. No;- do we grasp how one could gulp A sausage tightly tilled vtith pulp. Or gobble biscuits, tough and dark, Which Iqetik one’s teeth upon the bark. . / ffor no tree roast we’d give a rap, However flavored with the sap. Meals are cooked for fools like me, lint even 1. would scorn a.tree. > —Newton Kendall, . in Toronto Telegram. • and best —FAIRY DYES for all household purposes.'' i