Our group offers weekly lessons in chanoyu through Shofuso, the Japanese House in Fairmount Park. Lessons are held on Saturdays; the time
and schedule depends on what kind of class you are taking.
If you have never studied tea ceremony before, we offer lessons for beginners
starting on the first Saturday of each month. Beginners study in a separate
class until they master the simplest form of tea ceremony, at which point they’re ready to enter our advanced classes.
For people with prior experience with chanoyu, we offer ongoing advanced
lessons. For information on these or more on the beginner’s classes, e-mail us at info@phillytea.org.
Why study chanoyu?
There are a number of reasons why people study tea. If you talk to different tea
students, it might seem like everyone comes to chanoyu for different reasons, and with different goals in mind.
Some people enjoy the aesthetics of tea. The artistry involved in the ceramics
alone is its own
field of study, one that attracts people from all over the world. The designs of
everything from the bowl to the tea scoop to the kettle in which the water is
boiled have been refined for generations, all with the goal of being functional
as well as visually pleasing.
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Some people practice tea as a way to connect to Japanese culture. In Japan, tea
is considered one of the traditional arts, much like karate, Noh theater, and
flower arranging (ikebana). Through learning chanoyu, one also learns about the history, art, folklore, and traditions of Japan, as
well as the nuances of Japanese manners.
Some people come to tea from the study of Zen. Tea and Zen Buddhism have
intertwined for centuries, and even today high-ranking tea masters in Japan
study Zen as a matter of course. Although chanoyu itself is not a religious practice, it still offers Zen students a way to
practice focusing their minds. In fact, even if you have no interest in Zen,
tea offers a way to help sharpen your concentration, discipline your body, and
relax away from the stress of everyday life.
And, of course, some people just enjoy the process of getting together and
sharing a bowl of tea — as our students can testify, it's addictive!
Lessons are taught in traditional Japanese style, which usually means a group.
The students begin by asking the teacher for a lesson, and then each student
makes tea under the teacher’s supervision, with other students acting as guests. There are literally dozens
of different variations on tea ceremony, or temae in Japanese; students start by learning basic movements and gradually build up
to doing a complete temae. From there, the temae get progressively more complicated, each level building on the one before.
Learning tea is an experiential process. Students are encouraged to learn by
doing and by observing rather than by taking notes or memorizing a sequence
from a book. Details are important, and there’s a lot of emphasis on moving in the right way and placing things in the right
position. If you’re a student, it may seem like it’s all a plot to drive you crazy, but in fact the goal is to train your body to
move in a way that’s purposeful and, ultimately, beautiful.
That depends on what you want to do. The simplest temae in the Urasenke system takes six months to a year to master, depending on the
student. (That's assuming one lesson per week with some practice at home.)
If you want to continue your study, in the Urasenke system there are many other
levels of tea, each one a bit more complex than the last. In practice, it takes
at least five years to learn enough to host a full tea gathering, and beyond
that you could study indefinitely.
With chanoyu, it's the practice that counts, not the destination. There's a popular tea story
that illustrates this point beautifully:
A disciple of Sen Rikyu, the founder of what became modern chanoyu, once asked, "What are
the most important things that must be kept in mind at a tea gathering?"
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He answered, "Make a delicious bowl of tea; lay the charcoal so that it heats
the water; arrange the flowers as they are in the field; in summer suggest
coolness, in winter, warmth; do everything ahead of time; prepare for rain; and
give those with whom you find yourself every consideration."
The disciple, who had hoped to hear some great secret, said, "That much I
already know . . ."
Rikyu answered, "Then if you can host a tea gathering without deviating from any
of the rules I have just stated, I will become your disciple."
With a little bit of digging, it's not too hard to find books that will describe
the procedure for doing chanoyu, and some of them go into great detail. Why bother taking lessons from a teacher
when it's all written down?
Genpaku Sotan, the grandson of Rikyu and himself a tea master, probably put it
best when he wrote:
That which is chanoyu
Is transmitted through the mind
Through the eyes
Through the ears
With not a single written word
The true spirit of chanoyu has as much to do with your heart and mind as it does with the procedure. In the
beginning, the focus is on memorizing the sequence, but once the student learns
what to do, the emphasis shifts to what is going on in his mind. Learning how
to center yourself, how to pay attention to your own movements and the guests
at the same time, how to distinguish the smallest details that will either make
or break your gathering — all of that comes with time, practice, and the guidance of someone who knows
what he or she is doing.
There are practical reasons, too. A book might tell you where to put a tea
container, but it can't correct you if your positioning is slightly off; it
can't tell you when your back isn't straight enough, or when you've added too
much water to the tea. All of that, and a thousand other unpublished details,
requires an experienced teacher.
What about people who don't live near a tea school? It's a difficult problem.
But if you or someone you know is truly interested, we would encourage you to
contact the nearest tea school (see our links page for a list). Even if it's
too far for you to travel, they may know a teacher who lives close enough for
you to study with, or be able to give you other advice. You can also try
checking with a nearby Japanese cultural center, if one exists.
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Our group does public demonstrations at Shofuso once a month between April and
November, when the house is open to the public. We will post the dates of
upcoming demonstrations on our home page, and you can also get more information
at www.shofuso.com. Space at the public demonstrations is limited, so we recommend that you reserve
a seat in advance. (Guests at these public demonstrations typically sit on the
floor; if you need to sit on a chair because of physical considerations, please
let the staff know beforehand.)
If you have a group that’s interested in a private demonstration, you can arrange for one at Shofuso, or
one of our demonstrators can come to you. Fees and availability depend on the
date, location, and the number of people involved.
Demonstrations typically involve a brief introduction to chanoyu, the demonstration itself, and time for questions and answers at the end, all of
which takes about an hour. Although any number of people can observe a
demonstration, the utensils are small and the movements are subtle, so a very
large group may find it hard to catch all the details.
If you’re interested in a demonstration at Shofuso, please contact their office
directly at (215) 878-5097 or e-mail info@shofuso.com. If you’re interested in an on-site demonstration, e-mail us at info@phillytea.org.
