Anne

Ich habe die Situation auch lange unterschätzt. Daher war ich auch sehr überrascht.

やさしいコメントを
ありがとうございました！
そんな簡単な解決が見つかれば
いいのですね〜

I don’t want to gatekeep and say people shouldn’t drink matcha if they don’t engage in tea ceremony. But maybe that "mindfulness" and "spirituality" would help them to understand that they don’t need "ceremonial grade" matcha, if the matcha ends up in a latte.

I cannot and don’t want to suggest any solution. Sometimes I just wish people would not just get interested in the (not always proven) health benefits of matcha, but also into the culture behind it that they so often call "mindful" and "spiritual".

There is a lot of tension, conflicted feelings and so many thoughts in this situation. Especially for me as a white foreigner who spent almost a decade learning the tradition of another country’s culture.

It’s a weird situation. While I am somehow happy that so many people are interested in matcha, it doesn’t sit right with me that it is at the costs of tea culture in Japan and elsewhere in the world. And from my perception a lot of people in Japan and the realm of tea ceremony feel in the same way.

Buying matcha became quite hard – even here in Japan. Most online shops are constantly sold out and even my teacher could not order the matcha we usually use for koicha (thick tea). We will start making koicha with the same matcha we usually make usucha (thin tea) with in our lessons.

There is a lot of tension, conflicted feelings and so many thoughts in this situation. Especially for me as a white foreigner who spent almost a decade learning the tradition of another country’s culture.
I cannot and don’t want to suggest any solution.

It’s one month since I came back from the short training course at Fushin'an. Somehow nothing changed, but also somehow so much changed.

不審庵の短期講習会の終了から1ヶ月が経ちました。何も変わっていないような、でもなぜかすごく変わったような気がします。

Camelias of Nezu Museum 🌺
I went to see the Samurai Tea Ceremony Exhibition. Compared to other museums they had a lot more detailed English translations.

根津美術館の椿🌺
武家茶の展示を見に行きました。他の美術館と比べて、細かい英語の翻訳が多かっただと思いました。

The biggest takeaway is that I got much more tangible idea of what the Iemoto and Fushin'an actually is. I am really grateful I could participate in this course 😌

最大の経験というのは、不審庵と家元はどういう事か、もっと理解になった気がします。この講習会に参加ぎできて、有難いです 😌

A tight schedule, no phones, no distractions, long days of seiza and a week filled with so many new impressions – I am still processing all of it.

完全なスケジュール、携帯なし、気を逸らすものなし、数時間の正座の日、様々な新たな印象含めている7日。まだ頭の中で整理していると思います。

Myoken-ji: Garden of the Temple we spend the days.

A tea bowl from which I drank some matcha in between the lessons.

Snapshot of the view during pur visit at Daitoku-ji.

Beginning of March, I participated in the short training course of the Fushin'an. It was a full week deep diving into the world of tea and the Omotesenke 🍵

3月の初めに、不審庵の短期講習会に参加しました。お茶の世界と表千家深く入り込む丸一週間でした 🍵

Me dressed in Kimono sitting in front of an alcove of a tea room.

The view into a big tea room towards the alcove which in decorated for the new years. In front of it, the winter hearth is also in the frame.

First Hatsugama in a Kimono 👘 初めて着物の初釜

今回、自分が着付けしなくて、先輩が教えてもらいました。少しずつ自分ができるようになってきます😌
This time, I didn‘t dressed myself, but one of my Senpais explained it to me. Little by little I might be able to dress myself soon 😌

Recently I started practicing to wear kimono. The first attempts have been challenging. I thought I might never get it. But yesterday I was very happy with the result – just perfect for a little new years tea time ☺️

この間着付けの練習を始めたのですが、最初の試みは難しくて疲れました。理解できないと思いました。しかし、昨日の着付け試みに満足しました。家で新年のお茶にぴったり☺️

A little tea session in my living room. There are two wagashi and a matcha bowl in the front. Me and the utensil to prepare tea are cut off in the background.

Close up of the wagashi and tea bowl. One wagashi has the shape of a snake the other one the shape of a plum blossom.

Side shot of me preparing tea in my small living room space.

Super close up of the snake wagashi (because it‘s so cute).

Happy New Year and welcome to the year of the Snake 🐍 あけましておめでとうございます。今年は巳年ですね！

Temae tatami corner in front of a closet and a very big tokonoma (alcove) next to it.

Red plum (ume) pattern on the outside of the door.

Bamboo covering the window to peek at the temae tatami from the entrance area in front of the door.

White flower pattern at the inside of the door.

The room in spacious with a cozy temae corner. All the patterns and textures make it interesting to explore when looking around. Since the museum itself does not have heaps of visitors the atmosphere is quiet and calming 😌

和室はとても広くて、点前畳みが心地良さそうです。あらゆる模様と材料のお陰で見回しが面白いです。記念館が全然混んでいないので、雰囲気はとても静かでしたね☺️

View into the tea room from in front of the door. Window covered with bamboo in the left. A sliding door with plum (ume) pattern on the left.

View out of the tea room towards the door which has a different pattern (flowers) on this side.

View outside of the window. A little terrace adjacent to the window in front of momiji trees in bright red colors.

View towards another window with an arc in front of it. The window has decorative elements made of wood and shoji.

Just for momiji season the tea room at Osaragi Jiro Memorial Museum in Yokohama is open for the public 🍁 On my self-imposed mission to visit more tea rooms I was excited to take a look.

紅葉の季節のみ、横浜の大佛次郎記念館の和室が一般公開されています🍁もっと茶室を訪ねろうとする私は、楽しみにして参りました。

A table used for tea ceremony. Next to it stands a red parasol.

Main Buildingg of Nanzoin Temple. On the left is a peach blossom blooming.

Weeping cherry blossom (shidare-zakura) at the temple.

参加している茶道教室のお寺さんが花祭りを行っています🌸
このきっかけで立礼点前の練習になりました🍵

The temple where I go to tea class is holding a Hana Matsuri (flower festival) 🌸
On this occasion we got to practice Ryurei Temae (a tea ceremony performed with a table) 🍵

It also reminds me a bit of an UFO or planetary rings 🛸🪐

ちょっとユーフォや惑星の環に似ていると思いました🛸🪐

We have a new kettle at tea ceremony class. It’s called a sukigi kama and used to slowly raise the ashes in the ro (fireplace) as it is becoming spring.

茶道教室に新しい釜があります。透き木釜と言い、春がくるので、灰がどんどん高くなるために使うと言われました。

Foreground: Matcha in a grey tea bowl with a wagashi called warabi mochi. Background: Dry flowers, a calendar of march with a drawing of a bird and a daruma plant pot as decoration.

Foreground: Matcha in a grey tea bowl with a wagashi called momo no hana (pechblossom). Background: A woodblock print with a tea ceremony motive as decoration.

Yesterday‘s and today’s matcha 🍵
昨日と今日の一服🍵

On Saturday my tea ceremony teacher and her husband invited us to a very special dinner. We eat fugu for the first time. At one point my teacher even called me a real chajin, which made me feel really honored 😌

土曜日、先生のご主人にとても特別な夕食に招待されました。初めてフグを食べました。ある時、先生は私を本物の茶人と呼びました。とても光栄に感じました😌

Tokonoma with a hina matsuri wall scroll.

Wall scroll has a drawing of the emperor’s couple and the kanji 寿 kotobuki meaning congratulations.

Self with decorated futaoki and hishaku. Futaoki is shaped like a hina matsuri lantern.

Detailed shot of the flowers hanging at the tokonoma.

Today’s tea ceremony practice was also Hina Matsuri themed 🎎

今日のお稽古もひな祭りのテーマでした🎎

Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) decorations at a traditional Japanese house.

Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) decorations at a traditional Japanese house.

Detailed decoration: a tiny tea pot is decorated with fake blossoms.

A cup of sencha next to a dorayaki on a tray.

Soon it is Hina Matsuri! We went to see some decorations at a traditional Japanese house and also got to drink some sencha 🎎🍵✨

もうすぐひな祭りですね！近くの民家の飾りを見に行きました。煎茶も飲みました〜🎎🍵✨

Woodblock print in a golden frame standing on a shelf next to flowers.

Close up of a woodblock print of three women practicing tea ceremony.

A souvenir from my precious Kyoto trip last November 😌

I stumbled across a woodblock print shop on my last day and wondered—what if I find something tea ceremony related?! I skipped through so many beautiful prints and finally found it. A tea ceremony woodblock print 🍵

Front of an oribe style tea bowl: white surface with green applications with a two mountains painted in brown in the center.

Back of an oribe style tea bowl: white surface with green applications with a two mountains and birds painted in brown in the center.

Front of a grey tea bowl: Overall gery-ish glaze with orange-ish sprinkles.

Front of a grey tea bowl from a different angle: Overall gery-ish glaze with orange-ish sprinkles.

Recently, I found these two chawan at Book Off Super Bazaar—a huge second hand shop in Japan. I love to browse through second hand ceramic sections. You never know what you might find. And I was lucky to come across these beauties. I wonder what stories they could tell 😌

Today’s omogashi was called shitamoe which means below sprouts and refers to the greens coming out of the spoil below the snow🌱

今日のお菓子は下萌です。雪の下から、草が萌えるイメージです🌱

Tokonoma (alcove) of todays tea room. 今日の床の間

After several month, I got to practice koicha again today. Which reminded me I really have to look up the name of my dashibukusa.

今日、久しぶりに濃茶の練習ができました。といえば、出帛紗の名前を覚えなければならないのですね。

Fun Fact:

You may have heard about Matcha Day on May 2nd - especially in the USA. I’m am not sure about its origin as I read a lot of different stories about it. But it did not originate in Japan since May 2nd is 緑茶の日Green Tea Day in Japan. Maybe someone just mistranslated or misunderstood it 👀