Round waiting room

This tea-house has a wonderful garden around it. All the seasonal trees and flowers needed to keep the garden alive throughout the year can be seen. The garden also has two very cute Machi-ai / waiting huts near the tea-house. One is directly next to the Chashitsu / tea house and is made from another big barrel of the same kind as the tea house. The second waiting room is a little further away in the garden and has a beautiful stepping stone path leading up to it. Everything seemed so perfect for a tea ceremony that I surely will go back there and try to arrange something.

Round Tea Ceremony House

After having lunch with some friends, I found a beautiful tea-house behind the restaurant. It’s probably the smallest I’ve ever seen. It is made from a huge barrel which used to have Miso-paste in it. The owner told me that his acquaintance was about to throw some of these barrels away since they had become too old to continue the storage of Miso-paste in it. One barrel was made into a tea-house and another into a Machi-ai / waiting hut. The owner knew a carpenter who had some experience building and designing Chashitsu / tea house and they worked on the hut together.

Inside there is only one Tatami mat, so I guess the room would only fit two or three people which makes it a very intimate. The window, the tana / shelves and the kakejiku / hanging scroll were all of miniature size to keep a balance in the Chashitsu (tea house).

Nagashidate style

Today I had an opportunity to practice nagashidate (流し立て) with the ro (炉). It is a shorter and easier form of temae (手前). Here instead of the mizusashi (水差し) the yakan is used. The setup of the temae corner is different from usual as well: the chawan (茶碗) and the natsume (棗) were placed diagonally from the corner of the ro. The yakan was placed next to the ro in the middle of the remaining part of the tatami mat. The kensui (建水) is placed next to us as we sit straight in front of the ro (instead of sitting diagonally). Next the chawan is placed between our knees and the ro, from here on most of the temae is the same as it would be performed during a usual temae with a mizusashi and or a tana　(棚).　

- The top image shows the basic setup for nagashidate when beginning to prepare tea for your guests.
- The second picture shows that the chawan moves between the host and the ro. And also where the chawan will be placed when the tea is ready to be recieved by the guest(s).

Greetings to all who are interested in the "Japanese Tea Ceremony". I would like to use this blog to write about my studies of the "Way of Tea" and am looking forward to reading your ideas and opinions about it, too! At the moment i am also very busy creating a web-site with lots of information on the Tea Ceremony. I think there are already many people who share their experience and knowledge about the Tea Ceremony which is great. However, there isn't much information on Omote-Senke and its procedure and rituals, so I'd like to share with everyone my studies of Omote-Senke's approach to the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
As soon as my web-site is up-and-running, I'll inform you right away on this blog!! right now I'm guessing it will happen within two weeks or so.
If you are as exited as I am about the Japanese Tea ceremony, please leave your comments on this blog or write me an e-mail.
Thank you.