TEA AND THE CULTURE OF SOCIABILITY

During its medieval period, Japan developed a distinctive culture of sociability featuring such upper-class pursuits as poetry contests, poetic dialogues, and the tea ceremony. This culture eventually spread and took hold as part of the everyday life of the Japanese people. In the Edo period (1603– 1868) networks for the creation of comic haiku formed among the common people, and various other customs became established, including seasonal exchanges of visits and presents and the practice of serving tea to callers.

It was not only in Japan, of course, that tea became a part of the everyday culture of hospitality. Tea came originally from China, and if it were not for the Chinese culture of sociability, along with China’s ethics and philosophy, it is likely that Japan’s distinctive culture would not have emerged. A parallel may be seen in the Japanese linked-verse tradition of poetic dialogues (renga) and comic haiku poetry (haikai); these are said to have originated from the linked verse of China, but the Japanese developed this concept as the basis of an original culture. The development of cultural imports along Japanese lines is a distinctive feature of Japanese culture, yet it was not until the Meiji period (1868–1912) that the Japanese people actually became aware of this as their own original culture. It should be noted that even though this awareness of an original culture was lacking in Japan at the time, the first Europeans to come to Japan along the new sea routes opened in the Age of Discovery were very receptive to Japanese culture—and very interested in the tea ceremony.

The first Westerners to encounter the tea ceremony were the Jesuit missionaries who came to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century. This was a noteworthy encounter. The period of roughly 100 years from the mid-sixteenth century until Japan adopted its policy of national seclusion in 1639 saw the arrival in Japan and elsewhere in Asia of many European ships and merchants. The Portuguese led the way, followed by the Spanish, Dutch, and English. In view of the fact that people from the world’s major countries gathered in Asia to do business, it is fair to say that this was then the center of the global economy; one may also reasonably say that it was the center of global civilization. Within Asia, Japan was a major producer of gold, silver, and copper. Silver was particularly important as it was used as currency around the world, and Japan was one of the few countries producing it. So during this period Japan was one of the world’s major economic powers.

The Dutch scholar Jan Huygen van Linschoten, the most famous geographer of the time, described Japan as a country of great wealth. In his 1596 work Itinerarïo, voyage ofte schipvaert naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien (published in English as Discours of Voyages into ye Easte and West Indies in 1598), the twenty-sixth chapter is devoted to Japan; it tells how opulent the country was, and how advanced its civilization. Van Linschoten relates how the people of Japan prized tea as highly as precious stones, such as diamonds or rubies, and he mentions the custom of the tea ceremony, in which the head of a household would himself make this highly valued tea to courteously welcome a friend or visitor. In his descriptions of China, by contrast, van Linschoten makes no mention at all of tea, despite the fact that it was widely drunk there at the time. It is clear from this that already in the sixteenth century Western people recognized that there was a culture of tea in Japan completely distinct from that of tea in China.

Regarding the way the Western people of the time perceived Chinese tea, the Portuguese missionary Gaspar da Cruz, who visited China in 1560, writes that tea was a drink served to welcome visitors to the houses of members of the higher classes, as well as a medicine effective for treating fevers, headaches and stomachaches. The idea was later spread to Europe that this Chinese tea was an Eastern medicine of marvelous efficacy.

RODRIGUES FINDS JAPANESE SOCIABILITY IN THE TEA CEREMONY

Like silk and ceramics, tea has a long history in China, stretching back to the pre-Christian era. Unlike silk or ceramics, however, nothing at all was known about tea in Europe until Europeans came to Asia in the sixteenth century. The Jesuit missionaries who arrived in Japan, starting with Francis Xavier, happened upon the tea ceremony, which was the very pinnacle of this country’s flourishing tea culture.

Coming upon the tea ceremony with no prior knowledge of it, the missionaries were surprised by this bizarre, rather theatrical custom. Why, they wondered, was it necessary to build a hut specially for drinking a bowl of tea? Why did one have to stoop to enter this hut through a small entrance at the corner? Inside the hut, the ceremony itself was full of mysteries. The host himself boiled the water in a kettle and poured it into a bowl to make the tea. To the missionaries, the bowl looked bent out of shape and cracked, only good for giving water to a bird in a cage, yet just one of these bowls was worth more than the entire annual budget of the Japanese branch of the Jesuits. It may have been a simple artistic achievement of the moneyed classes that had been taken to extremes, but merchants, samurai warriors, and everyone else in the upper classes were pouring all their wealth into the tea ceremony. What could possibly be the meaning of this strange Japanese custom?

One man spent 30 years searching for the answer to this riddle. This was João Rodrigues, who amassed experiences and documents during his long sojourn in Japan, organizing and collating them into a book giving his own individual ideas and interpretations. His Historia da Igreja do Japão [History of the Japanese Church] spans three volumes, and the first volume in particular gives his ideas on the tea ceremony. Rodrigues was born in a mountainous area in central Portugal, and he came to Japan in 1577 at the age of 15. Making use of his gift for languages, he acted as interpreter for Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. After leaving Japan in 1613 he lived mainly in Macao, devoting the rest of his life to writing his Historia. During his time in Japan, Rodrigues had been close to many feudal lords and wealthy merchants, and he had thus acquired an extensive knowledge of the tea ceremony—his discussion of the tea ceremony and its culture takes up some two-thirds of the first volume of his history. This is a work of considerable importance, as it gives a full-blown study of the tea ceremony from Western eyes, informed by Rodrigues’s comparative cultural perspective.

What conclusions did Rodrigues draw from his study of the tea culture? Simply put, he maintained that the essence of the tea ceremony was the Japanese people’s culture of sociability, in which tea acted as an intermediary. Many readers may well raise an immediate objection: If this was his interpretation, then he must have been ignoring the viewpoint that regards the tea ceremony in terms of the austere wabi-sabi aesthetic of retirement from the everyday world. In fact, however, Rodrigues most certainly did not ignore this aspect of the tea ceremony—he writes in detail how a number of trees were planted around a teahouse built in an urban district of Sakai (Osaka) to create a wilderness area in the heart of the city where people were fond of carrying out the tea ceremony in solitude, as if deep in the mountains. But what is significant, I believe, is that Rodrigues did not position the tea ceremony as an element of the culture of retirement; as a Western observer he took the opposite view by positioning the tea ceremony as an element of a sociability that emphasized human relations—the culture of hospitality. In fact, this culture of hospitality soon spread to Europe from Japan, along with the leaves for making tea, as part of the whole culture of tea. The point I wish to emphasize here is that Rodrigues focused not just on the social intercourse of the ceremony, but also on the fact that underlying the ceremony were the sociability and manners that had established themselves in the everyday lives of the Japanese.

The first thing that Rodrigues draws attention to is the regular observances for maintaining friendly relations that were carried out between Japanese people as ordinary customs. He talks about the reciprocal New Year greetings and the visits paid to mark the start of each of the four seasons, and he notes the way guests were received, the dress, the etiquette, the exchange of gifts, the way guests were welcomed into the house, the refreshments that were served, and the way a banquet was conducted on each of these occasions. He writes in particular detail about the serving of food and alcoholic drinks to guests. At a banquet, for example, people were entertained by being plied with drink until they became completely intoxicated. Viewed in isolation, this particular custom may perhaps make banquets appear coarse and unrefined. But Rodrigues emphasizes how the Japanese culture of sociability was made up of refined, courteous practices, by which he was deeply impressed. To better understand this reaction, we should remember that the culture of courtesy and hospitality was not well developed in Europe at the time.

A banquet was the very height of hospitality, and tea played its part at the gathering. Rodrigues noted that tea was served at the end of the banquet to bring the event to its conclusion. The hospitality at a banquet had a set order: First food would be provided, after which drinks would be served and the atmosphere enlivened with song and dance. After the entertainments, the guests would each receive a little hot water in their rice bowl, which they would use to wash the bowl of any remaining grains of rice and then quickly drink. Several types of fruit would then be served, and finally tea would be served to bring the banquet to an end.

THE ETIQUETTE OF "CHANOYU"

The disturbances of the Ônin War (1467–77), which were concentrated in Kyoto, the capital, led to wider warfare over a period continuing to the mid-sixteenth century, commonly known as the Warring States period. During this time of upheaval, the focal point of Japan’s urban culture shifted to the entrepot of Sakai, whose townspeople enjoyed relative peace and prosperity. It was here that tea became separated from the banquets where it had been used to bring the proceedings to a conclusion, and a special building—the teahouse—and etiquette were established for welcoming guests with tea. This etiquette came to be called chanoyu (literally "hot water for tea"). The tea ceremony masters practicing their art in Sakai, from Takeno Jôô through Imai Sôkyû to Sen no Rikyû, each built on past accomplishments to perfect the tea ceremony.

The teahouse had a garden leading up to it, the teahouse and the garden together making up the setting for the performance of the tea ceremony. When a guest was invited to the tea ceremony, the garden would be swept and sprinkled with water, and careful consideration would be given to the selection of the hanging scroll for the alcove, the decorative ornaments, and the flower vase in accordance with the guest’s tastes and preferences. The guest also had to observe special etiquette to enter the teahouse. A particularly important point is that no one, not even a military commander, was allowed to take arms or armor into the teahouse. There was a sword rack by the entrance or else a shelf under the eaves for the visitor to leave his sword and fan, after which he would crouch to pass through a narrow opening to enter the teahouse itself. The entrance was constructed so that it would not be possible to enter carrying a sword or wearing armor. The teahouse was thus a sanctuary of safety from armed might.

A further point to note is that the host carried out the process of making the tea from start to finish in front of the guest or guests. Until the teahouse developed as a freestanding structure, the tea was made in a separate room and carried in just like the food at a banquet. There was always the worry, though, that anything brought into the room where the ceremony was being held might have had poison slipped into it. The practice developed for the host himself to take the powdered tea from its container and place it in the bowl to make the tea in full view of the guests, so that they could see for themselves that the tea they were about to drink contained no poison. This etiquette, which assuaged any unease or distrust the guest might feel, was indeed a landmark development in the procedures for the tea ceremony. Moreover, the practice of drinking the tea from a shared bowl, which was passed from person to person, was a further guarantee that the drink had not been poisoned. There was something almost sacred about the tea drunk in the sanctuary of the teahouse during the tea ceremony.

The next point to be aware of is that relations between the host and the guests inside the teahouse were not those of a superior and his subordinates, but of equal individuals. In Europe at the time it was normal for a superior to invite his subordinates to dinner, and Rodrigues was surprised to see subordinates giving invitations to their superiors in Japan. Premodern Japanese society was organized around a system of social status and strict divisions between superior and subordinate, so the egalitarian relations within the teahouse are particularly noteworthy.

Partaking of this almost sacred drink, tea, in the sanctuary of the teahouse helped to banish mistrust and, having done so, to develop relations of mutual confidence. The culture of the tea ceremony valued encounters between people, and it was a culture of mutual respect, elegance, and hospitality. It was the Sakai tea master Sen no Rikyû who developed the concepts of ichigo ichie (no single encounter ever repeats, so all encounters should be cherished) and wakei seijaku (harmony, reverence, purity, tranquillity); these were the philosophy behind the logic and ethics of the courteous manners and practices that helped build relations through tea. Rodrigues does not actually refer directly to the ideas of Sen no Rikyû. He does note, though, that everyone across China and Japan shared the Five Constants of Confucian teaching, and in saying that people abided by these moral constants, which define the proper behavior in five major categories of human relationships, he was presenting the sociability that is the special characteristic of the Japanese people’s way of life, different from the individualistic way of life which European people followed in accordance with their Christian culture.

Rodrigues observes that the study of human morals was already well advanced in China and Japan, which were not Christian countries. This refers to the study of humans as animals who observe manners in interacting with each other and who have the sociability for community life. The Five Constants to which he refers are benevolence, justice, politeness, wisdom, and fidelity. Rodrigues adds an explanation to each of these words: For him, benevolence means compassion, obedience, humanity, love, and consideration toward others; justice is righteousness, equality, fairness, and integrity; politeness is respect, etiquette, and courtesy; wisdom is intelligence and prudence; and fidelity is loyalty and honesty in human company and negotiations.

While Rodrigues’s explanation of the Five Constants does not supersede Sen no Rikyû’s concepts of ichigo ichie and wakei seijaku, it bears favorable assessment as an astute observation by a Westerner of sociability as a special feature of Japanese culture, and as such is of particular merit. In the same vein, the visiting Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano notes in his Sumario de las cosas de Japón [Summary of Japanese Matters] (1583), "The Japanese are behind us in other respects, but it can be said conclusively that the Japanese people possess an elegant, courteous disposition and understanding that excels all others. It cannot be denied that in this respect they surpass us in excellence."

WABI AND ZEN

I have explained the tea ceremony in terms of the culture of hospitality that places importance on interpersonal relationships. Another aesthetic of the tea ceremony of particular interest is the implements used in it. There is no denying that the development of the tea ceremony centered on a love for elegant things, whether of Chinese or Japanese origin. Because of this, there was a deliberate denial or rejection of showy elegance in the Japanese people’s aesthetics of the tea ceremony implements; from this aesthetic sense of denial was born the concept of wabi. The meaning of wabi is difficult to explain, but I would like to use a poem to present its spirit. It is said that the tea master Takeno Jôô used this poem, written by Fujiwara Teika, to illustrate the wabi heart of the tea ceremony; try to imagine the meaning of wabi from the poem.

Miwataseba

hana mo momiji mo

nakarikeri

ura no tomaya no

aki no yûgure

As I look about,

What need is there for cherry blossoms

or crimson leaves?

Grass-thatched hut,

Autumn dusk.

Teika*

The spirit of the tea ceremony is made up of the sociability of the Japanese people and the refined taste of wabi, but it was Suzuki Daisetsu (1870–1966) who later noted that this spirit was closely linked to the philosophy of Zen. Just as wine is used symbolically in the Christian church, tea has a place in Japanese Buddhism. In particular, tea was actually brought from China by Zen monks.

According to Suzuki, while Zen teaches that we can perceive the spirit by transcending physical form, the world we live in has a specific physical form, and moreover the spirit only expresses itself through that particular form. As I have already stated, the spirit of the tea ceremony is explained by the concept of wakei seijaku, which is made up of the kanji (Chinese characters) for harmony, reverence, purity, and tranquillity. Suzuki explains each of these characters in turn:

Wa (harmony): the character for "harmony" reads "gentleness of spirit" (yawaragi), and to my mind "gentleness of spirit" seems to describe better the spirit governing the whole procedure of the art of tea. Harmony refers more to form, while gentleness is suggestive of an inward feeling.

Kei (reverence): the principle of property is reverence, which in practical life functions as harmonious relationship.

Sei (purity): "purity," estimated as constituting the spirit of the art of tea, may be said to be the contribution of Japanese mentality. Purity is cleanliness or sometimes orderliness, which is observable in everything everywhere concerned with the art of tea.

Jaku (tranquility): "Tranquility" is the most eventual factor in the tea art, and without it there can be no char-no-yu [chanoyu] whatever. It is in this connection, indeed, that Zen enters deeply into the art of tea. . . . Jaku is sabi, but sabi contains much more than "tranquility".*

SOCIABILITY AND ENGLAND’S TEA CULTURE

The first tea to arrive in Europe was carried on board the Dutch ship Roode Leeuw met Pijlen, which sailed from Hirado in Japan on October 2, 1609, and docked in Amsterdam on July 20, 1610. The ship carried the green tea used in the tea ceremony from Japan, and it picked up Chinese tea en route at the port of Bantam in Java. Tea did not reach England, however, until the mid-seventeenth century, and coffee was introduced slightly earlier. Coffee and tea both spread among the upper classes, and through this process these two luxury articles from overseas were to transform English society.

Coffee became a drink that men took in coffee houses, and the various institutions of civil society, such as political parties, the press, insurance companies, and later gentlemen’s clubs, took shape in these coffee houses. Tea, meanwhile, caught on as a drink that ladies took at home, and from this took shape the modern household with tea at its center. The tea that made its way into English homes was not just a drink—under the lead of the ladies of the household it became established as a meal with the role of a household ritual. From the Middle Ages up until the beginning of the eighteenth century, English people did not gather as a family to eat breakfast together; instead, every family member would eat at his or her own time up until around 11 o’clock in the morning. In The Diary of Samuel Pepys, which is an account of everyday life in the latter seventeenth century, Pepys relates that he seldom had breakfast at home with his wife, instead usually leaving his house after getting up in the morning and going to a tavern or coffee house to eat. Ladies drank tea at home, but this is not to say that they liked to take tea as a meal on their own. They took tea together with the family as a meal, and this practice gave rise to breakfast centered on tea. It was normal at the time to have two meals a day, and housewives developed a copious menu to break the long fast from the day before. Until then, the first meal of the day had been a simple repast of bread and butter with ale or beer; breakfast in England took shape in the 1740s as a more lavish meal of tea, to which milk and sugar were added, and bread and butter, which was eaten with ham, sausages, and eggs.

The role of tea expanded even further at the end of the eighteenth century. Housewives who had been left looking after the home while their husbands were out at work would meet over tea between three and four o’clock, and this afternoon tea became a time to develop interpersonal relationships. In the Victorian England of the nineteenth century, tea was the symbol of domestic bliss, the happiness of the family-centered culture of the time. American cultural anthropologist Woodruff D. Smith notes that "Tea was in a real sense a celebration of the fundamental permanent human association: the family."^† Smith also points to the importance of teatime manners, and in particular of the role played by the family as a social system that fostered human sociability: "Teatime manners were significant. . . . The point of teatime conversation was to promote sympathy and sentimental attachment to other members of the company, not to come to conclusion. . . . It was a variety of the pattern of politeness that had emerged in Western Europe in the early eighteenth century as an expression of a modified gentility."

I believe it is fair to say that the culture of the Japanese tea ceremony crossed the oceans to Europe, where it was taken in by the English people and flowered as the culture of tea in their homes. The social culture of the tea ceremony transmitted from sixteenth-century Japan was greatly refined within the culture of the English gentleman; it later spread around the world through the British Empire.

Translated from an original article in Japanese written for Japan Echo.

*Translation by Earl Miner, An Introduction to Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968), p. 104.

*D. T. Suzuki, "Zen and the Art of Tea," in Carolyn Korsmeyer, ed., The Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink (New York: Berg Publishers, 2005), pp. 167–73.

^†Woodruff D. Smith, Consumption and the Making of Respectability, 1600–1800 (New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 174.

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