Way of Tea » tea culture

Lu Yu and the purity of tea

Blake Harvey — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:00:30 +0000

Lu Yu, a Tang Dynasty figure whose authorship of the Cha Ching (the Classic of Tea) has earned him the status as the “god” of tea, is a fascinating figure who has given us an historical insight into the growing, manufacture and brewing of tea.

At his tea blog, Loose Leaf, Alex Fraser has a short, but thought provoking article on the mixing of tea with different flavourings.

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Tea Gathering at San Francisco’s Urasenke Society

Blake Harvey — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:51:43 +0000

Christie Bartlett, Founding Director of Ursaenke Society, San Francisco talks about the history of Urasenke, why tea gatherings matter today, and the ripple effect of “peace through a bowl of tea.”

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Artisans hand down tea-whisk tradition

Blake Harvey — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 03:36:11 +0000

This year marks the 1,300th anniversary of the relocation of the capital to present-day Nara, then called Heijokyo. And while tourists may flock to anniversary events, temples and shrines renovated for the occasion and to special public viewings of Buddhist statues and treasures, Nara has another treasure to be proud of. It is Takayama chasen, tea whisks used in traditional tea ceremonies.

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Tea and Chinese Cultural Aesthetics

Blake Harvey — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:38:04 +0000

Pei-kai Cheng, founding director and professor of the Chinese Civilisation Centre at the City University of Hong Kong and author of the recent two-volume publication, The Complete Annotated Collection of Chinese Tea Books, explores the cultural significance of tea drinking during the Tang period (618–907 CE). Cheng discusses the change and continuity of “The Way of Tea” (chado) from the Tang-Song period to the Ming-Qing period, revealing the cultural diversity of the tea-drinking ceremony as influenced by various social entities and institutions and by agronomical and technological advances. This talk also examines how aesthetic appreciation and choice of wares for tea ceremony influenced the development of Chinese porcelain-making technology.

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Our ugly beautiful world

Blake Harvey — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:00:49 +0000

A scene of the Chapter "SEKI YA"(Gate Hut) of Illustrated handscroll of Tale of Genji (written by MURASAKI SHIKIBU).

BY AMIN GHADIMI – We live in a beautiful world.

Or do we? Every day the evidence to the contrary seems to mount, and to make such a sweeping claim in the face of so much national and global adversity feels fatuous, even callous and perhaps cruel.

But “everyone recognizes beauty / only because of ugliness,” claims the second verse of Jonathan Star’s translation of the Tao Te Ching. Perhaps we can sift through our ugly world and, despite ourselves, despite everything, winnow out all the dross that defiles it.

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Freer Gallery of Art Acquires Renowned Object of Japanese Tea Culture

Blake Harvey — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:59:25 +0000

Tea-leaf Storage Jar, named Chigusa, Southern China, Southern Song or Yuan dynasty 13th-14th century, Stoneware with iron glaze, H: 41.8 cm., Freer Gallery of Art.

WASHINGTON, DC.- A humble jar widely revered as an icon of Japanese tea culture has been acquired by the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art. The jar was purchased at an auction held by Christie’s in New York City Sept. 17. The jar, made in China during the late Southern Song or Yuan dynasty (13th or 14th century) and shipped to Japan as a container for a commercial product, developed a distinguished pedigree in the hands of influential tea connoisseurs, collectors and rulers who used it for storing precious tea and displayed it in their tearooms between the 15th and 20th centuries.

“This handsome jar has been admired and sought after by Japanese tea masters for half a millennium,” said James Ulak, deputy director of the Freer and Arthur M. Sackler galleries. “As the documentation shows, its surface has been admired and caressed by a who’s who of Japan’s cultural giants from the 15th century forward. It is extremely rare to find such a storied work on the market.”

Read the full article here.