Alright 2020, what’s next?

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Aaron

Anyone out there have this happen to them? You’re making tea one day to celebrate the New Year with a few people.

Or maybe more than a few.

With rather tight seating arrangements.

Or, maybe you were giving a presentation about tea to a few hundred guests.

Sluzew Culture Center, tea presentation sponsored by us and the Japanese Embassy.

And the next thing you know your tea gatherings looked like this?

Welcome to the year 2020.

All joking aside, as you all know, this year has been trying for just about everyone in one way or another. With sorrow for those we have lost and hope for a better future, we wish you all good health and safety.

Here in Warsaw we too have needed to adjust. Except for a few rare instances, all classes, okeiko (practice), and chakai (tea gatherings) have moved online.

We still managed to hold Rikyu-ki, with just the four of us at home, along with several virtual guests attending through the computer screen.

Guests eating sweets while waiting for the tea to be made and offered in the alcove. There is no waiting for sweets.

Just before the guests went wild from eating all the sweets.

On the plus side of things, we have made new and better connections with people far and wide, generally by means of networking video software. There has been a worldwide sparked interest in distance learning, especially beneficial to those who were already geographically distanced from other tea practitioners and teachers. We have been able to teach and study with people on every side of the Earth. And that has been phenomenal.

So, most of the photos this year look like screen shots with a bunch of heads, maybe someone making tea. I’ll instead focus on two recent experiences, created by those who couldn’t live by computer screen alone. For although 100% VR tea may soon exist, people coming together to share tea and time in each other’s company will never be replaced.

We’ve gone back and forth about how best to serve guests in person. For now we keep the guests to just a few, like a tea gathering should be, small and intimate. If there are people that live together we let them share a bowl of koicha. Today we made good use of kasanejawan, a form that uses two bowls for the thick tea, one for each household present.

Recently, the head of Urasenke, Zabosai Oiemoto, explained that there were other forms made in the past that dealt with ways of minimizing the spread of germs. One such method was the Kakufukudate procedure. It involves making the thick tea as usual for the first guest.

Kneading the koicha. The masks are not a set part of the form but we used them this day for additional safety measures.

As the first guest drinks the host goes out to get a tray containing separate bowls, already containing tea powder, for each guest.

A good practice for making single servings of koicha

The host returns and quickly makes tea for the other guests.

As we move forward, it’s an intense time for tea, with so many people considering so many options, it’s sure to advance. The direction is unknown and in constant flux.

But as Ula says, “I’m not worried”.

Rikyuki 2015

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Aaron

One of the events we try to hold each year is Rikyuki, the memorial tea gathering for Sen no Rikyu.

It has become our tradition to begin with hanayose, a group form where each participant arranges the flowers in a different vase. We squeezed in room for nine people this year, still not enough for everyone but it’s a nice way to get a lot of people involved.

Next Ula and Damian made the fire using the sumi shomo form.

Once the fire was burning Aaron made an offering of tea that was placed in the tokonoma.

Everyone left the tearoom to enjoy a bite of food and then have the yomogimochi sweet that Monika had prepared.

Once back in the tearoom everyone shared both thick and thin tea.

To wrap up the day a simple kagetsu was carried out.

It’s was a great pleasure to herald in the Spring as well as remember the father of our modern wabi tea practice. We wish that everyone can enjoy the warming season and the company of friends and family.

Summer Tea Workshop 2014

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Aaron

So many events skipped, I’ll try to fill in the blanks over time.

Let’s talk about the Warsaw Summer Workshop while it’s still fresh!

After a welcoming dinner in old town Warsaw

This year, somehow, the word about our workshop continued to spread and we were privileged to receive participants from many different places. Of course some of our own members were here to host six members of the Krakow group along with one from Hungary, two from Finland, another Finn who came all the way from Kyoto, and an American from London. All together about 19.3 participants (that’s including 7 month old Gabriela and our fantastic cook/masseur Marcin).

Many of the participants

One reason we were able to draw a member from Japan is because we focused heavily on practicing the shichijishiki this year. The shichijishiki are a set of group forms devised in the 18th century in part to enlist many participants in one practice and based somewhat on the seven practices in Zen temples.

Each day started with light exercise to wake up,

wake up

stretch?

relax

some meditation to focus,

meditation introduction

and some food for sustenance before delving into all the forms.

breakfast

These group forms, like any other, require repetition in order to learn; however, they require a knowledge of all the basic forms as well as having a sufficient number of people in order to practice them.

basic charcoal form

Each night we did our best to try out other aspects of chanoyu, making Japanese sweets, making tea scoops and making kobukusa.

Rikyu manju

Goldfish made of sweet bean paste swimming over sweet sesame sand.

bending chashaku

The first day, as always, we began by refreshing the basic elements of tea practice, sitting, standing, walking, bowing, and preparing the utensils. We then discussed the history of the group forms and talked a little about each one.

you can never practice walking too much

That afternoon we practiced the most common of the group forms, Kagetsu. Kagetsu is a form that can be practiced in many different ways and in which each participant must be ready to change places with any other to do whatever task is at hand.

sumi tsuki kagetsu

koicha tsuki kagetsu

The second day was spent at Kaian, the Japanese tea house at Warsaw University. There we practiced more Kagetsu, specifically the types that can be carried out in a 4 1/2 mat room. We also did a little practice in the 2 3/4 mat room for some close tea sharing with each other.

drawing for the initial roles (in the huge corridor)

4.5 mat kagetsu

daime koicha

On the third day we hit the more difficult forms, or at least those less practiced. We started with Shaza, a form where each person takes care of a different task; arranging flowers, making the charcoal fire, preparing incense, making the thick tea, and making the thin tea.

incense preparation in Shaza

Next we practiced Chakabuki, a form where each person drinks two different thick teas, the consumers are informed of the names of each. Then three more thick teas are prepared randomly and each person must guess which tea they are drinking, the first, second, or a third mystery tea.

bringing in the “ballots”

tasting the tea

showing the tea type to the record keeper

In the afternoon we practiced Senyū. This form is somewhat similar to Shaza above except each element is modified and/or expanded on: instead of one person arranging the flowers everybody takes a turn doing it, the charcoal fire is done honsumishomo style so the guest actually only puts in the charcoal, two types of incense are prepared, thick tea is made for everyone, and the thin tea is carried out as in Kagetsu.

charcoal element of Senyu

Of course anytime there was extra time we tried to fit in an extra Kagetsu.

One the last day we practiced a form called Ichi-ni-san which enables each participant to give a review of the tea form done for them by the host.

checking her “score”

We also practiced Kazucha, a form wherein each participant will have a sweet, make tea and drink tea all in random order. We then used this form in our closing tea gathering that afternoon.

Kazucha beginning bow

in the midst of Kazucha

The closing chakai started with the charcoal, an excellent bowl of thick tea, and then everyone participating in Kazucha for their thin tea.

Chakai set-up for charcoal

Koicha L

koicha center

koicha R

Kazucha during chakai 1

Kazucha during chakai 2

We were busy from early morning to late night everyday but we still tried to have a little party to wrap up the event. As usual, most everyone was too tired to notice. That’s how we can tell if people had a good workshop, when they pass out when it is over.