Starting My Chanoyu Journey

Studying Chanoyu (茶の湯) or sadō/chadō (茶道) was not something I had planned or that I had always been interested in. My initial impression of it was a tea ceremony that had many rules, it was strict, and there was a lot of formality. For example, the guests are not supposed to talk during the tea ceremony, and only the host and the first guest can have a conversation, but only at certain times. In contrast, my experience with tea is mainly Chinese Gongfu Cha, where the atmosphere is quite social and casual.

What finally piqued my interest in Chanoyu was the book “Every Day A Good Day”. Author Noriko Morishita shared her personal experience and thoughts about studying The Way of Tea, and how it impacted her everyday life. Many of her questions and doubts during her first few years as a student resonated with me and made me want to learn more. So as a birthday gift for myself, I booked a tea ceremony experience with Takahashi-san, who not only explained each step of the ceremony in great detail but also took the time to answer a lot of my questions, such as:

• Is it true that as a student, you have to learn how to walk and sit?
• Doesn’t the many rules of chanoyu restrict the freedom to be creative?
• When exactly do you eat the sweets? (this was one of my burning questions after a somewhat embarrassing moment at another tea ceremony)

This experience made me realize that my initial understanding of Chanoyu was very surface-level, basically what I know just through my eyes (watching or reading) but not with my other senses, and not experiencing it with my heart. With the serenity of this experience lingering within me for days after, I decided to attend a trial lesson with Takahashi-sensei.

I have studied chanoyu since then and as I enter my third year, every lesson still makes me feel that I’m at the starting point. Perhaps, this is why Sen no Rikyū once said:

稽古とは一より習ひ十を知り
十よりかへるもとのそのー

Practice constitutes learning from one, becoming cognizant of ten, then returning from ten to one, the beginning.

Cheers to an amazing journey,
Jan