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Introduction

CHIKAMATSU SHIGENORI, the author of this book, was born in 1695 the eldest son of Chikamatsu Shigekiyo, a warrior and retainer of the Tokugawa clan in Owari Province (Aichi Prefecture at present). Shigenori was commonly known as Hikonoshin, and he used the pen names Nankai and Nogenshi. He also signed his name Chikamatsu Hikonoshin Fujiwara Shigenori.

When Shigenori was seventeen, he was appointed page to the feudal lord of Owari. He was a very promising retainer and was expected to become a high councillor to the lord in the future. But when Shigenori had served in his post for only half a year, his lord died. After the late lord’s brother succeeded him, Shigenori was put in charge of the horses and grooms, at a reduced salary. However, he was not discouraged by his demotion, but rather took advantage of his leisure time to study military science very diligently. In this way he was able to become an authority on military strategy, about which he wrote a hundred books. A versatile man, he also studied the tea ceremony, the Shinto religion, haiku poetry, and waka poetry.

Shigenori was not a professional tea master, but rather a warrior who studied and deeply enjoyed the tea ceremony. In 1739, he compiled a manuscript on the tea ceremony with the title Chanoyu Kojidan (Legends of the Tea Ceremony). It consisted of seven volumes containing a total of three hundred five stories and anecdotes. However, Shigenori died in 1778, at the age of eighty-three, without seeing his work published.

The manuscript lay neglected until someone anonymously selected one hundred twenty-’nine of the stories, revised them, and published them in 1804 under the title Chaso Kanwa (Stories from a Tearoom Window). This book consisted of three volumes containing Stories 1-62, 63-111, and 112-129, respectively. Thus Shigenori’s work was finally published, sixty-five years after its compilation and twenty-six years after the author’s death. A second edition was published in 1816.

THE ORIGINAL INTRODUCTIONS

In coming to an understanding of the book and its author, one may turn to Shigenori’s own words of introduction. He expressed himself in four propositions found in Legends of the Tea Ceremony:

1. This book was written about things I saw or heard tell of twenty years ago. There may be not a few mishearings or misunderstandings, but I have had no opportunity to correct any possible errors. Everything was written down from memory, so readers may come across mistakes.

2. The contents consist entirely of old stories told by tea masters or well-known anecdotes passed on from old. What is current and prevalent in present-day society is not contained here. This should be kept firmly in mind when reading this book.

3. The prices of various articles are presented in this book. It may seem a little too commercial for a warrior to be involved in such matters. But even in transactions dealing with swords, helmets, or other arms, the appropriate prices are decided after careful study and evaluation by the people concerned. Thus comments on the prices of articles cannot be done without. I sincerely ask my readers not to laugh at me for discussing such ignoble things as money and prices, even though I am a warrior.

4. I have been fond of the tea ceremony since childhood. I learned the tea ceremony at a Sen school, and even though I have been busy with working hard at my profession of military science, I have enjoyed a bowl of tea whenever I could find time to spare. But under the circumstances, I could hardly make a thorough study of the rules and principles of the tea ceremony. When I think of the profound knowledge and achievement of many tea masters, I must address my sincerest apologies to my readers for my poor knowledge.

Despite Shigenori’s modesty, the publication of his work was greeted with the utmost interest. Perhaps a better estimate of its significance is given in the original foreword to Legends of the Tea Ceremony. This was written in 1731 by Kobayashi Shisso, a man of Kyoto, who stayed with Shigenori for some time in order to write it. Shisso’s comments illuminate Shigenori’s true purposes, as well as the state of the tea ceremony at the time:

It is a happy thing that the tea ceremony has become so very popular. When lords and leaders devote themselves to the tea ceremony, their retainers and followers are liable to indulge in it even more wholeheartedy. At present, all distinguished people are very fond of the tea ceremony, but regrettably they are liable to be too particular in regard to details or mere technique, and also to be overly extravagant. Opposing this tendency, Chikamatsu Shigenori has written this book for a number of his disciples in the midst of his busy life as an instructor of strategy and military science. His sole desire is to convey an understanding of the true principles of the tea ceremony to tea aficionados. He hopes that this book may serve as a guiding light for those who practice the tea ceremony.

THE TEA CEREMONY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

Stories from a Tearoom Window draws on a tradition that was centuries old even in Shigenori’s day. Though tea was brought to Japan from China in a still earlier era, the classic Japanese tea ceremony was formulated by Murata Shuko in the fifteenth century. Shuko and Nakao Shinno (Noami) introduced this tea ceremony to the former shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who, during a period of civil war and turmoil, found consolation in aesthetic pursuits at Higashiyama in Kyoto. In the sixteenth century, the tea ritual was further developed by Takeno Jo-o of Sakai near Osaka, where the prosperous merchants embraced it. The way of tea was perfected by Jo-o’s disciple Sen no Rikyu, the greatest of all tea masters. Sponsored by the powerful warlords Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who were forcibly reunifying Japan, Rikyu established simplicity as the central element of the tea ritual. It was to the ideal of Rikyu that Shigenori wished to restore the tea ceremony (which he felt was falling into rigidity and extravagance) by compiling tales of earlier and “purer” ages.

The tea ceremony, Rikyu said, is nothing more than preparing and serving a bowl of tea. It is characteristic of Japanese culture, under the influence of Zen Buddhism, to find artistic and spiritual meaning in the commonplaces of daily life. Thus the arranging of flowers is considered an art form, and the preparation of a bowl of tea can express the essence of aestheticism. In the words of Kakuzo Okakura, the tea ceremony “is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.”

Drawn from daily life, the tea ceremony was refined to a point of great stylization. Every movement is prescribed, but this severe discipline gives rise to natural, harmonious action and total awareness of the moment. This Zen principle popularized the tea ceremony among feudal lords and warriors such as Shigenori, who sought the same thing in the military arts.

Before the guests arrive to take part in the tea ceremony, the host must make painstaking preparations. The tearoom and garden are carefully cleaned. A charcoal fire is built in the hearth or brazier and a kettle is put on to boil. With attention to the season and other aesthetic considerations, appropriate flowers, calligraphy, or other decorations are selected for the alcove. All is meticulously planned to produce an atmosphere of artless nature and tranquility.

The guests approach through the modest garden, which reflects the unaffected beauty of a mountain pass. After rinsing their hands and mouths at a stone basin, they enter the tearoom, a small and unpretentious hut. As they pass through its small doorway one by one, the guests must lower their heads, stimulating feelings of humility and of entering a serene new world.

When the guests have appreciated the decorations in the alcove and taken their places on the tatami mats, the host greets them and brings in the tea utensils from the kitchen. In a simple tea ceremony such as that described below, these consist of a fresh-water vessel, tea bowl, whisk, tea scoop, tea caddy, ladle, waste-water vessel, and kettle-lid rest. Ceremoniously the host cleans the utensils, then scoops powdered tea from the caddy and places it in the tea bowl. He ladles hot water from the kettle into the bowl and whisks it into frothy green tea. In the case of usucha (thin tea), the first guest drinks the entire contents of the bowl, which the host then washes and refills with tea for the next guest. The kettle is replenished from the fresh-water vessel, while water used for cleaning goes into the waste-water vessel. In the case of koicha (thick tea), the bowl is passed from guest to guest, each taking a sip. When all the guests have been served, some of the utensils are presented to them for appreciation. The host removes the utensils and bows to the guests, marking the end of the tea ceremony. In more elaborate tea gatherings, a meal may be eaten and both koicha and usucha may be served.

-TOSHIKO MORI