Tea introduced from China.

Tea is said to have been introduced into Japan from China in 805 A.C., by a Buddhist Abbot named Dengyô Daishi, who was the abbot of the temple of Hiei-Zan near Kyoto. He went to China for studying the esoteric side of Buddhism, stayed there long, and, on his return, introduced the plantation and use of tea. China and Japan were the two first wellknown countries for producing tea. In China itself, there are two traditions about the introduction of tea there. The later tradition says, that a Buddhist ascetic from India, named Bodhidharma, introduced tea from India in about 543 A.C. Another well-supported tradition is, that tea was known there earlier than the sixth century A.C. A mythical Emperor, Chinnung (about 2737 B.C.), who was to China, what Thraetaona (14 of the Hindus, Faredun of the Shahnâmeh) was to ancient Iran, was skilled in medical knowledge, and, with that knowledge, he discovered the virtues of tea. The Chinese and Japanese word for tea is cha. Hence the word chadai, i.e., tea-money is used in Japan for petty gifts to domestics in hotels, inns, &c. The word corresponds in its use, to the French pour-boir and our Indian pân-supâri. Our Indian word châhe (2 Persian chai) comes from the Chinese. But the English word tea comes from its Amoy dialect where cha is pronounced tè.

Tea-Ceremony as seen by me.

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What draws our special attention in Japan is the people's way of life associated with tea-drinking. The Tea-houses (chaya) of Japan form an important institution of the country. In China and Japan, one of the best ways of expressing geniality and courtesy to visitors, both for the high and the low, is the offer of a cup of tea. They drink, what they call, green tea in large quantities without milk or sugar. In Japan, Tea plays a very prominent part in social functions, and the proper observation of certain manners and customs, regard. ing the offering of tea by hosts and the drinking of it by guests,

has been carried to such a state of ceremonial, that it has, as it were, a code of etiquette of its own, and has risen to the rank of a cult, and we hear and read of a tea-cult. A writer speaks of all etiquette in Japan, including the tea-etiquette, as the "Kaisar of Japan.1"

A globe-trotter like myself, who, as it were, flew from place to place, had no special opportunities to see the cha-no-yu (i.e., the ceremony of serving and drinking tea with all the prescribed rules and regulations) in higher circles, where it is to be seen in its best form; but there are certain places where such tea-ceremonies are held as a kind of show, where you are admitted by the payment of a fee. I had the pleasure of seeing at Kyoto, on 10th April 1922, such a tea-ceremony. It was all along, as it were, a dumb show, some of the details of which could not be immediately understood. But, what I found at the bottom of the tea-ceremony was, that it was a particular kind of observation of the rules of society in the matter of tea-gatherings, or, what we may call, tea-parties. The higher circles of society in the West, and here in India also, have their particular manners and etiquette to be observed in modern tea-parties. Here, in Japan, that manner of observation has been carried to a great extreme, amounting to a kind of cult. The above referred to tea-ceremony, which we had the pleasure of seeing on the payment of an entrance fee, was held in a large beautifully decorated room, wherein we had to enter by taking off our shoes. We were given slippers in their place and had to take our seats on beautifully white clean mattings. The tea party, if I may be permitted to use the word, or rather the assembly of tea-drinkers, consisted, besides four of us, myself and three friends, of about 15 European and American ladies and gentlemen and two Japanese. A handsome richly-dressed Japanese lady, the Teafairy of the occasion, prepared tea with certain decorum and

1 Queer Things about Japan, by Douglas Sladen (1903), p. 151.

grace. The first cup was served to the principal guest, in this case the first comer, who, on the principle of "First come, first served," had taken his seat by the side of the Tea-fairy. Then we, other guests, were served with tea in beautiful Japanese cups by other young girls who brought us our cups from the Tea-fairy and handed them to us. The tea was accompanied with a kind of dainty, which to me appeared in taste to be something like our Indian dâlni puri which we Parsees speak of as A ERA. The tea-maids were dressed in beautiful fancy dresses. The whole was a dumb show and I wished somebody could have explained to us there and then the details. It seemed, as if we had entered into a house of silence rather than into a house of pleasure. I learnt more of the true aim of the tea-ceremony or the tea-cult latterly by reading of it in books and by hearing about it than by the dumb sight-seeing. But, however dumb, it was a sight worth-seeing which illustrated all that I read and heard about it.

The Tea-ceremo⚫ ny as observed in a house of rank.

Owing to my very short stay, I had not the opportunity of seeing this ceremony in a family of rank. So, I will quote here what Mr. Knox, a writer who had come into some closer contact with the Japanese, says "The tea-room opens to the garden, and its exposure is carefully adjusted to the view, everything common or unclean being hidden from our eyes....An iron kettle hangs from a bamboo crane, and the ashes in the fire-box have been curiously heaped and delicately pressed in figures. When we are seated the servant places the utensils for the tea at his master's side each article a treasure-We are to drink 'true tea', and ever since the days of the luxurious Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, its preparation has followed in detail the strictest rules. But to day we have the function in its simplest form,

1 Imperial Japan. The Country and its people, by George William Knox (1905), pp. 172-73.

with some relaxation of its severity in consideration of our foreign weakness. A silken napkin is taken from the girdle and each immaculate implement is wiped again; every motion of the hand, the very expression of the face follows precedent: a mite of tea is put into the cup and, after cooling, a little water is poured on the tea, then with the bamboo brush it is beaten to a foam and handed to the most honoured guest, who receives it, lifts it to his forehead, looks his admiration of the cup, and, then drinks off the draught. Turning the cup partly round, he wipes it off and hands it to the host again, for the guest's part, like the host's, is according to strict rule. Again the cup is cleansed and the same ceremony is repeated for the second guest, and then the guests beseech the host to prepare a cup for himself and when he drinks his tea the function is complete.

"In Tokyo there are professionals who gain their liveli hood by this art. At tea houses and clubs, they act the part of host for pay, and go to private families to instruct in the ceremonial. The room itself must be constructed especially and the garden must conform to rules that leave nothing to chance or individual taste. There are various schools that differ somewhat in details, but the main features are the same in all. When the full ceremony is performed an elaborate feast comes first, then the guests solemnly retire into the garden and take their seats in a prescribed place while the room is re-arranged for the making of the tea........When the gong sounds, they solemnly file in again to the same room. ......After the host has drunk his tea the utensils are examined and each one praised in turn, and the festivity concludes with the exhibition of some artistic treasures.”

The Wine-parties of the Ancient Iranians and the Teaparties of the Japa

One Kobori (1577-1645) has been taken to be the founder of this Tea-ceremony and tea-cult and of the accompanying flower-cult and the cult of Landscape-gardening, all forming a set of æsthetic pursuits. There are several schools of this tea-ceremony. One Sen-no-Rikyu (1521-1591) was known

nese.

as the Master of ceremonies in the Court of Hideyoshi, referred to in the sketch of the History of Japan given by me in my first paper on Japan. He had a successful æsthetic career in Hideyoshi's Court. We read in the Shâh-nâmeh of Firdousi that the ancient Iranian kings and generals had, in the intervals of their battles, wine-parties or drinking-parties, wherein the sâkî or cup-bearer moved about and filled the goblets of the guests. Here, in Japan, they had, instead of wine-parties, their teaparties in the intervals of battles. This Sen-no-Rikyu accompanied his king Hideyoshi, spoken of as the Augustus of Japanese History, in his battles and served as a kind of principal sâkî or cup-bearer, serving tea to the king's tea-parties. It is said that, one day, his royal master asked his beautiful daughter in marriage. He refused, because she was already betrothed, and he was directed to end his life by harakiri. He committed harakiri in the midst of his favourite tea-ceremony. He went to his tea-room, made tea ceremoniously, arranged flowers and killed himself.

The tea-bearers of the early kings of Japan were men of influence like the cup-bearers of the Kings of Iran, e.g., Nahemiah (Nehemiah Bk. II) in the Court of the Achaemenian Artaxerxes.1

The use of Tea in Japan. Its social influence.

Sir Edwin Arnold, speaking of the use of tea and of all the etiquette and ceremony accompanying the drinking of tea at a party, speaks of the whole process as an "apotheosis (i.e., deification, consecration) of tea-drinking." He speaks of it as a ceremony" delightful, mysterious, archaic, profound," and says, that without such experience (i.e., the experience that one gets at a tea-ceremony in Japan), every tea-drinker in the world remains little aware of the

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1 Nehemiah's sadness at the time of serving wine to his royal master in the month Nisan, drew the attention of the king, and on his telling the cause of his sadness, he was sent with letters to repair his Jewish city.