Koicha

I've been practicing the Japanese tea ceremony for many years now and finally this Saturday was the first time that we (my class) practiced Koicha. Previously I have seen many people prepare koicha during official and non-official tea ceremonies. However doing it myself was a totally exciting experience. Before we entered the Chashitsu our teacher carefully taught us how to handle the Fukusa and how to perform certain steps before folding it to wipe the Chaire. We practiced folding the Fukusa a couple of times and then we moved on to practicing how to place the Chaire in the Shifuku. After the Chaire was placed in the Shifuku our teacher showed us how to tie a knot with the draw-string at the top. Shifuku are most of the time made from expensive material so we were a little nervous about handling the pouch in the beginning but as we got used to the texture and the steps to closing and opening the Shifuku we were able to relax.

Preparing Koicha had many similar steps to preparing Usucha, but with all the excitement of this new chapter most of us went blank. However, my tea teacher is the most patient woman in the world. She is always calm and guides us positively through all the steps. Our tea teacher really loves to teach new things and seemingly never gets tired of correcting us on the same point dozens of times. It is probably because of her that we always look forward to our tea class, there is such harmony and peacefulness that it is very relaxing and refreshing to have a tea class on Saturday afternoon. For a couple of hours we can totally forget about our worldly obligations and float in the world of tranquility that is the tea room.