Searching for the Spirit of the Sages
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Spirit Sages: of the Searching for the I Japan Sencha in Baisa6 and Graham J. Patricia relatively obscure of focus tea the today tea) • • leaf (green Sencha a as serves eclipsed popularity that Meiji its early and bakumatsu the Japan. in in Yet eras, ceremony its due 1730s, the cultivated in sencha, to first in •, •j•. interest Initial ofchanoyu was r) 6 ritual elaborate required neither preparation, which of relative and flavor delicate an ease China's with associations from resulted its expensive Moreover, utensils. esteem nor Japan. in elite of marker long been status had which knowledge of sophisticated culture, a Japanese of highest levels of the domain exclusive the knowledge had been Earlier, this life had of walks all from Japanese educated early 18th century, By the society. improve and cultivation their demonstrate culture material appropriated and values to its persistence, reveals the today 2 tradition of the continuation standing. The social their in avocations learning and Chinese-influenced of importance, diminished though in • • senchad6 of schools approximately hundred separate society: Japanese modem one though, is here, intention My cities. major Japanese located in •• existence, most in are reflected and both sencha when early modem the in fluorescence its focus era, to on aesthetics. and ideals society of Chinese permeation Japanese into facilitated the • • • (the old Baisa6 popularly tea known • (1675-1763), • L_• Yugai K6 as I• • idolized Yu Lu He sencha patriarch of the the tea considered seller), ceremony. is 3 Chaky6), •_ • J. Chafing (Ch. of Tea Classic the of author 804), the d. U, (J. Riku for fondness whose tea Chinese ancient other and treatise, first sages, China's tea could Baisa6 enlightenment. Yet not ability facilitate its belief in their to from stemmed existing conditions had following his for loyal not tea and large attracted have a as as personality did charismatic Baisa6's While its public for predisposed acceptance. the helped ideology and spread create its limelight, others a Kyoto the into sencha thrust appeal. national all 18th of the half century, first in the appeared the Baisa6 time By the scene on increased There existed. sencha for cult of formation the was elements to a necessary for Asian Association presented the that at the of version annotated is article paper was This an in deal with ideas I of the introduces April, 1996. It Honolulu, meeting in some annual Studies study the That of Sages. the Sencha, traces Tea forthcoming book, in form detailed my more the sencha relates it literati Chinese to of the culture material appreciation for as history Japanese inception the present. its from Japan to in tea ceremony consumption in of modes of development the attributed been have considerations to 2 Similar of Judgement of Taste the Critique Social A Bourdieu, Distinction: Pierre See societies. Western 76-77. especiallypp. 1984), University Press, Harvard (Cambridge, MA: (Boston of & Toronto: Tea Classic The Carpenter, Francis Ross translation, English 3 For see an 1974). Co., and Little, Brown 34 traditions, understanding learning promoted of Chinese cultural with Chinese the basis as society. trade, Through renewed all classes of for education Chinese books among were these, widely Among life, accessible. literati basics of outlined and included the many so jiancha), steeping (Ch. of leaf favorite information drink of literati. the the tea green on a Japanese books, Through these readers learned intellectual of the and aesthetic enjoy Although Japanese they abroad, in sencha. could which environment travel to not including immigrant jiancha, Chinese from with familiar with customs, contacts were •baku • loyalists, • Ming monks, from literate Chinese merchants well Chinese as as Nagasaki. printed books, popular they well from learned of these in From sources, as as design. Newly imported luxury products and architectural Chinese Chinese customs were purchase major initially, they mainly chanoyu for in markets: used available also were as ]:• • display they later, in for tokonoma of elite utensils and adornments C) consumers; daily for sencha. utensils and became accoutrements developed ideologies, time, Confucian scholars had By Baisa6's such new as -• •, self-cultivation, promoted Kogaku ancient which China's of the merits sages, individuality. expressions especially appreciating literature, and of ideas exerted These day. drinking undergoing Baisa6's Kyoto itself also influence in in Tea strong was • •- •lJ following Rikyfi (1522-1591). of the death Sen radical transformation no by 1658, steeped Japan in from the late 16th and it known Chinese century tea was was • • 7• •i• (Compendium peddlers by shokukan being in Edo. book The Honch6 of sold published city, Time), informs of that 1692, in that the from Food Our among us women Contemporary of before number of sencha breakfast. drink it to cups a was common • •i• ,-•,, something ordinary • like ocha lowest bancha the this scholars or assume was 4 early popularly grade Japan. the 18th this leaf in From of century, tea tea green was 0baku • [•. tea), • (Ingen's for the founder of "Ingen named Zen whose called cha" 5 ?• • preferred by older rather than the matcha the Zen drank sencha adherents sects. growing chanoyu: Concurrently, dissension followers of there among was priest-practitioners chanoyu. and secular and criticisms of The tensions between masters, •- g ;• 7• example, scathing (1680-1747), for Kogaku Dazai Shundai scholar wrote (Soliloquy). •j• • Dokugo chanoyu His his remarks in 1738 about text, comments are aesthetically politically hand, simultaneously dismissive. On he the elitist and one imposed by Tokugawa shogunate. chanoyu social order the threat the He considered to a celebration of encouraged distinctions classes the in its in denial of felt it poverty among design objected and he and the of the of the aesthetics the both tearoom, to accoutrements gatherings together with inviting On the other practice samurai. of the to tea commoners • -•, • • ILl Japan), • of (Tea Shigem Ji-3 4 3, Ocha vol. Nihon ocha Kadoyama r) 6 to no 4[', Nishiyama •, (Tokyo: Gy6sei 1988), Publishers, 23; Culture) and • (Tea • and • bunka p. i•-0t• • •T. (Dictionary • ]•tj, Edogakujiten learning) • ILl/• of ]•g Edo al., eds. Matsunosuke et 1984), K6bund6, (Tokyo: 283. p. )ll•l: • Bash6, disciple • (1656-1715), • Kyoroku haiku and of Morikawa poet samurai The a •f• • • (Anthology • Customs) 1706, of of "Ingen his Fftzoku in tea" mentioned a monzen • • provided by Mikio reference school. This of the Bash6 collection of haiku prose was • English, 1• •i• Manpukuji. • fli• • discussion of this book in For Bunkaden of the at see of 1600-1867 Pre-Modern Era, Japanese the Walls: Literature World Within Keene, Donald 1976), Tuttle, (Tokyo: 142-143. pp. 35 filthy and gatherings pretentious, chanoyu utensils hand, its Shundai decried as as through insulting, the crawling and overpriced, door low of the tearoom custom a as 6 suffocating. atmosphere and dark aesthetics, both made incursions into wabi also Contemporary Chinese elements by such in discussions of Chinese culture in of and choice in the texts tea accoutrements •[, J•: • Chikushin Nariyasu (1665-1741) and Yabunouchi Mitani authors --- as • • (Records • • of Nariyasu's chashi (1678-1745). gda-Kan ,[•, Mitani 1728 text, Chinese and both Japanese book embrace Japanese Tea), first and the Chinese tea to was treatise, Genryd history single Yabunouchi Chikushin's continuum. Japanese tea as a • • Origin published • elevated above all else 1745, •, Tea), (Talks of in the chawa on 7 of cult literati formation of the contribution of the Chinese the the tea. to needed definitive tradition, sencha develop formidable order In tea to a as a idealization of in the identity found this spiritual of followers its Its aesthetic and own. Kyoto, Ishikawa Jrzan samurai-recluse of lifestyle the 17th literati of such century men as literati values )113•: Chinese Japanese fl_l assimilate first • (1583-1672), the known to as •'dl •. sukiya •_ hermitage, shoin sequestered Shisend6 in his while a indicated that design. Jrzan writers Chinese Later building of embellished with elements which in this • (elegance), • of offfiryd word epitomized the nuances, many a essence spirit, it,. Chinese literati unassuming immersion and his and referred to pure case 8 Fdryd possibly, drinking sencha. calligraphy pursuits--composing and and poetry, came pastimes models for the became and aesthetics, and Jrzan's define sencha retreat to gatherings. ofsencha ambience and appearance authority, and this moral required of established claim Sencha also to source an a (3baku for their Renowned sencha-drintdng monks. provided by Chinese Zen the was dignified temples Chinese philosophy, had knowledge their deep Chinese of appearance a provided political sencha with the circles monks in elite these for well. Reverence as chanoyu, rival Rinzai Zen. associated with standing with compete to necessary for sencha of cult for formation the fmal to The step. to someone was necessary a accomplished by Baisa6 chanoyu this and avocation alternative it promote to was as an Obaku Nagasaki where it Kyushu, visited temple Baisa6 in 1). (plate Raised in an priesthood and properly. left the Later, he sencha he learned how assumed that to prepare portable stall from 1735, Kyoto selling from around sencha in impoverishment, lived in a • eccentric, •'111 Gregarious and (den sages). of the "Senka" back, named his carried he on calligrapher. •, • He and first-rate eloquent Kanshi respected poet Baisa6 as a an as was his untrammeled Daoist, but Confucian, Buddhist, neither be claimed to nor found within heterodox ideals and obviously reclusive indebted philosophizing the to was Japan: Essays the Times," in Modem 6 Tea from Genroku in Varley, "Chanoyu Paul to on University Press, (Honolulu: of Hawaii Kumakura Isao Varley and ofChanoyu, Paul ed. History 174-76. 1989), pp. History," PhD Kramer, Cult in "The Tea Walter Robert 7 these issues discussion of For see: a Chicago, 66-69.