page_title: Japanese tea ceremony
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese tea ceremony / History
caption_attribution_description: a portrait by Tōhaku Hasegawa (長谷川等伯)(born in 1539 and dead in 1610), calligraphy by Sōen Shunoku (春屋 宗園)(born in 1529 and dead in 1611). Copied from http://www.omotesenke.com/image/04_p_01.jpg
context_page_description: Japanese tea ceremony is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea, the art of which is called temae.
  Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the Japanese tea ceremony. Much less commonly, Japanese tea practice uses leaf tea, primarily sencha, a practice known as senchadō in Japanese, as opposed to chanoyu or chadō.
  Tea gatherings are classified as either an informal tea gathering or a formal tea gathering. A chakai is a relatively simple course of hospitality that includes confections, thin tea, and perhaps a light meal. A chaji is a much more formal gathering, usually including a full-course kaiseki meal followed by confections, thick tea, and thin tea. A chaji can last up to four hours.
  Chadō is counted as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with kōdō for incense appreciation, and kadō for flower arrangement.
context_section_description: The first documented evidence of tea in Japan dates to the 9th century. It is found in an entry in the Nihon Kōki having to do with the Buddhist monk Eichū (永忠), who had brought some tea back to Japan on his return from China. The entry states that Eichū personally prepared and served sencha (tea beverage made by steeping tea leaves in hot water) to Emperor Saga, who was on an excursion in Karasaki (in present Shiga Prefecture) in the year 815. 
  By imperial order in the year 816, tea plantations began to be cultivated in the Kinki region of Japan. However, the interest in tea in Japan faded after this.
  In China, tea had already been known, according to legend, for more than a thousand years. The form of tea popular in China in Eichū's time was dancha (団茶, lit., "cake tea" or "brick tea") — tea compressed into a nugget in the same manner as pu-er tea. This then would be ground in a mortar, and the resulting ground tea mixed together with various other herbs and flavourings.
  The custom of drinking tea, first for medicinal, and then largely also for pleasurable reasons, was already widespread throughout China. In the early 9th century, Chinese author Lu Yu wrote The Classic of Tea, a treatise on tea focusing on its cultivation and preparation. Lu Yu's life had been heavily influenced by Buddhism, particularly the Zen–Chán Buddhist school. His ideas would have a strong influence in the development of the Japanese tea.
  Around the end of the 12th century, the style of tea preparation called "tencha" (点茶), in which powdered matcha was placed into a bowl, hot water added, and the tea and hot water whipped together, was introduced to Japan by Eisai, another monk, on his return from China. He also took tea seeds back with him, which eventually produced tea that was considered to be the most superb quality in all of Japan.
  This powdered green tea was first used in religious rituals in Buddhist monasteries. By the 13th century, when the Kamakura Shogunate ruled the nation and tea and the luxuries associated with it became a kind of status symbol among the warrior class, there arose tōcha (闘茶, "tea tasting") parties wherein contestants could win extravagant prizes for guessing the best quality tea — that was grown in Kyoto, deriving from the seeds that Eisai brought from China.
  The next major period in Japanese history was the Muromachi Period, pointing to the rise of Kitayama Culture (ja:北山文化, Kitayama bunka), centered around the cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and his villa in the northern hills of Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji), and later during this period, the rise of Higashiyama Culture, centered around the elegant cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimasa and his retirement villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto (Ginkaku-ji). This period, approximately 1336 to 1573, saw the budding of what is generally regarded as Japanese traditional culture as we know it today.
  The use of Japanese tea developed as a "transformative practice", and began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of "sabi" and "wabi" principles (see Wabi-sabi). "Wabi" represents the inner, or spiritual, experiences of human lives. Its original meaning indicated quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste "characterized by humility, restraint, simplicity, naturalism, profundity, imperfection, and asymmetry" and "emphasizes simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, and celebrates the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials." "Sabi", on the other hand, represents the outer, or material side of life. Originally, it meant "worn", "weathered", or "decayed". Particularly among the nobility, understanding emptiness was considered the most effective means to spiritual awakening, while embracing imperfection was honoured as a reminder to cherish one's unpolished and unfinished nature – considered to be the first step to "satori", or enlightenment.
  Murata Jukō is known in chanoyu history as an early developer of tea as a spiritual practice. He studied Zen under the monk Ikkyū, who revitalized Zen in the 15th century, and this is considered to have influenced
caption: Master Sen no Rikyū, who codified the way of tea (painting by Hasegawa Tōhaku)
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