Chado Tea Ceremony
The
tradition of tasting tea originated in China in about the 8th century and was
brought to Japan by Zen Buddhists priests at the end of the Heian Period (12th
century), who used it to prevent drowsiness during their long hours of meditation.
The popularity of tea-drinking among the people began in the early 14th century.
A Zen priest named Sen Rikyu (1521-1591) established the tea ceremony in present form under the protection of a powerful lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598). Sen Rikyu had the idea of "Wa Kei Sei Jaku" as the essential ideals of the tea ceremony. This is the embodiment of the Japanese people's intuitive striving for the recognition of true beauty in plainness and simplicity. Such terms as calmness, rusticity, gracefulness, or the phrase "aestheticism of austere simplicity" may help to define the true spirit of the tea ceremony.
In
the Edo Period (18th century), many schools of the ceremony sprang up, differing
from each other in the details of the rules, but maintaining the essence of the
ceremony which the great master had instituted.
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