Demonstration of tea gathering

Two weeks ago... I joined this CHADOU or tea ceremony class... but our sensei or tea master said it's actually tea gathering class! On our first class meeting ... we learned some history of chadou.

This afternoon was our 2nd class meeting and our tea master showed us the demonstration of the tea gathering... from how they open the sliding door... the bowings.. the way they walk, the preparations of the tea, the manners on drinking and appreciating the tea... including the way of eating sweets and so on...and so forth!

Below photos is our chashitsu or tea room. The tea room must have tokonoma or alcove (too bad that our tea room have no proper tokonoma) . They place hanging scroll, flowers and incense burner in tokonoma.

Hanging scrolls is usually selected by the host and it has always a significant meaning as it also stands for the theme of the gathering. Like in the picture below... TOKU WA KONARAZU... means "always together" or "you're not alone". The flowers and incense suggest the season. In front of the tokonoma was placed the tea host tea sets like fresh water jar, kettle and fire brazier... some utensils used for tea preparations.
The host preparing tea for the guest. The guest observe the preparation.

Formal way of drinking tea... host offered sweets first to guests to balance the bitter taste of the tea.
After tea gathering
After the demonstrations... they taught us the manners and basic procedures of drinking tea in tea bowl and how to eat Japanese sweets. The procedures is quite sensitive... I felt that it's not all about drinking tea... it's their character, decipline, their art... yap... their culture!

Our last class will be next Saturday. o(^-^)0