Tea Culture: From the Same Seeds

Hello, my name is Wang Yan and I’m a reporter with NewsChina. With our podcast, we aim to provide insight into the current trends of modern China allowing you to clearly see what’s happening today through a historical lens. 

Today we will introduce how the Japanese tea ceremony – or chadō （茶道）, the way of tea – first originated from China before evolving into something quite different from Chinese tea culture.

China is home to a long-established and flourishing tea culture. In many ways, Japanese culture is fundamentally influenced by China. In its earliest form, Japanese tea practice was no more than a duplicate of Chinese tea culture, but over time, it gradually took on its own features, leading to the formation of the uniquely Japanese “way of tea”.

The origin of tea culture can be traced back to China’s Tang and Song dynasties when a group of Japanese monks were sent to China where they drew upon Chinese experience in tea drinking and preparation. For instance, Chinese monks used to drink tea for its refreshing effect to keep them awake during long hours of meditation. This practice was observed by their Japanese counterparts and taken back home.

As early as 804 during the Tang Dynasty, a Japanese monk called Saicho (最澄) travelled to Zhejiang Province in eastern China to study deep Buddhist meditation at Tiantai Mountain (天台山) . When he returned home the following year, he brought some tea seeds and planted them in Kyoto, and this is believed to be the beginning of tea cultivation in Japan. In addition, Saicho introduced to Japan The Classic of Tea written by Lu Yu（陆羽）, China’s most prestigious tea master. In recognition of his major contributions to Japan’s tea industry, Emperor Saga （嵯峨天皇）even composed poems paying tribute to Saicho. 

At this early stage, Japanese tea culture essentially featured Chinese characteristics inside and out, which could partly be seen by reading much of its tea-related poetry which closely resembled those written in China at the time.

After a time, tea culture in Japan suffered a period of decline, but there was an upsurge of interest in tea during the Kamakura period（镰仓时代）around the beginning of the 12th century thanks mainly to a Buddhist priest named Eisai（荣西禅师）who became widely known as the father of tea in Japan. In his earlier years, Eisai set off on his journey to China to study Buddhism and, upon his return in 1191, he took back large volumes of religious texts as well as tea seeds.

It’s said that the tea seeds from China were planted in Kosanji Temple（高山寺）in Kyoto and that they produced tea of the highest quality and value. Based on his deep understanding of China’s Buddhist and tea cultures, Eisai wrote a book in Chinese – Drinking Tea for Health. It was Japan’s first ever book on the topic. And it’s worth pointing out that the book introduced China’s particular style of tea preparation – tencha （点茶）– in which powdered tea is placed into a bowl, hot water added, and then the tea and hot water are whipped together. This is considered to be the origin of Japanese matcha（抹茶）.

In fact, Eisai was more focused on the medicinal effect of tea than anything else. In his book, Eisai regarded tea as something of a magical drink for maintaining one’s health and a universal medicine for treating diseases. This perception could hardly be echoed by the Chinese who were accustomed to having tea as a daily beverage.

Under continuous promotion by Eisai, tea became ever more popular – first in temples and then among the elite and warrior classes. Tea gatherings were held everywhere in Japan, and specially designed rooms were built for tea events exclusively for privileged groups. People started to take interest in tea competitions, tocha（斗茶）, where contestants could win extravagant prizes for guessing the best quality tea.

The Japanese tea industry continued to evolve during the Muromachi period when these bustling tea gatherings were regarded by many as a form of social misconduct that lacked sufficient etiquette. In response, the eighth shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa（足利义政）, who served in that position for 24 years throughout the mid-15th century, ordered the establishment of the first chashitsu（书院茶）, a purposely built tea room where noble-style tea ceremonies were performed in a more solemn and austere manner.

Another influential figure in Japan’s tea history is Murata Jukō（村田珠光） who was commissioned as master of ceremonies at tea events. Inspired by the spirit of Zen, Jukō combined the essence of religious, public, and noble tea activities to found the soan-style ceremony. Soan means small thatched-roof hut, so a soan-style ceremony is imbued with simplicity and minimalism. It was also Jukō who first elevated the concept of chadō. According to Jukō, chadō is all about spiritual purity and enlightenment with the ultimate goal of achieving universal peace. Arguably, chadō was implemented as a way of maintaining social order and encouraging obedience among the masses in Japan’s feudal society.

It was not until the middle of the 16th century when soan-style tea was further popularized by Sen no Rikyū（千利休）who lived from 1522 to 1592. He is credited with shaping Japan’s tea culture into the artform it is today. In an effort to make chadō more accessible to the general public, Rikyū modified the four principles of chadō proposed by his predecessor Jukō. Originally, the four principles were kin (reverence), kei (respect), sei (purity) and jaku (tranquility). Rikyū replaced kin (respect) with wa (harmony), a much milder term. He also placed more emphasis on the importance of kei (respect) in a highly hierarchical society with warriors at its center. 

According to tea rituals defined by Rikyū, a fixed set of exquisitely designed procedures are to be followed when conducting tea ceremonies. These procedures cover a wide range of aspects, from the design of the venue and choice of tea utensils, to details of tea preparation, clothing, gestures, and even what words to exchange. It’s easy to see how one might feel completely lost when first experiencing a Japanese tea ceremony.

A typical tea gathering would last as long as four hours during which bows were frequently exchanged between the host and guests receiving tea. For a gathering of one host and three guests, it’s estimated that some 231 bows would be exchanged. More surprisingly, bows were classified into various forms according to the degree of formality of each occasion since either excessive or insufficient courtesy would be considered inappropriate.

Official rituals, whether in Japan or ancient China, were always guided by political climate and enforced by the ruling class to safeguard the established order. Tea rituals and related traditions were maintained for the same purpose. Take Rikyū’s family for example. Beginning with Sen Sōtan（千宗旦）, grandson and third-generation successor of Rikyū, the iemoto system was adopted for inheriting the family tea business. The iemoto system is characterized by a hierarchical family structure where the supreme authority lies with the iemoto who has inherited the secret traditions from the previous iemoto. Only the iemoto – the grand master – was entitled to provide training and award certificates to apprentices of a particular ceremonial style. 

In fact, performing the seemingly complicated procedures in chadō were also seen as an expression of Japanese aesthetics advocating a world view of austerity and serenity with an appreciation of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Tea rooms were decorated with dark and dim colors as opposed to bright ones. The once sought-after Chinese tea bowls lost their appeal, and Japanese tea aficionados began showing a preference for Korean ceramics, which were known for their rustic unpolished appearance. After that, under the supervision of Rikyū, hand-made tea ware appeared and was similarly unglazed, speckled and unevenly colored. Paired alongside these were other forms of tea vessels that would be deemed to be of inferior quality in a Chinese cultural setting. 

What might have also puzzled Chinese observers about Japanese chadō was its tea room, or chashitsu. To enter a standard chashitsu, guests had to literally crawl in through a low square entrance only 70 centimeters high. For the Japanese, the chashitsu served as a spiritually pure space that must be separated from the secular world by a narrow opening. 

This unique philosophy is called wabi（侘）in Japanese and there is no equivalent in English. Simply put, wabi is a subtle state of mind centered on authentic beauty and spiritual purity rather than the pursuit of material gain – a state in which the essence of chadō lies. Nevertheless, the spiritual beauty of wabi in chadō was necessarily measured in secular terms when it came to the social status of guests and the exquisite rituals. It is, therefore, fair to say that chadō should never be subordinated to the status of a food tradition, lifestyle or a method of social intercourse. No one could give a better explanation of chadō than the late 19th century Japanese scholar and art critic Okakura Kakuzō（冈仓天心）who was the first to introduce chadō to the western world. He argued in The Book of Tea that “Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life”.

This ideological approach to tea is a unique cultural phenomenon in Japan and could hardly be found in Chinese tea culture. Though one may encounter the similar term “chadao” in some Chinese literature, it simply refers to a tea event or ceremony as opposed to the highly ritualistic Japanese chadō. 

The most commonly used tea in chadō was the familiar powdered green tea called matcha（末茶）, a practice that originated during China’s Song Dynasty. Although the tradition of powdered tea by and large died out in China shortly after, it took root in Japan. To prepare matcha, tea leaves go through several procedures before being ground into powder. The result is a cup of tea with a light greenish color and bitter taste. As an alternative, the thick version of matcha tea is intensely bitter and can be quite a challenge to those new to the experience.

Considering that thick tea may cause certain side effects when taken on an empty stomach, the Japanese developed a tradition to eat cha-kaiseki（茶怀石）, before tea was served. This practice sets the Japanese chadō apart from Chinese tea drinking traditions. 

In conclusion, the different historical and social backgrounds of China and Japan gave rise to two distinctive ideas about tea. Over the centuries, the Chinese tend to adopt a more practical approach. Drinking tea at the office is as common and casual as a cup of coffee in the US. For the Japanese, by contrast, tea has become highly symbolic and by no means an ordinary beverage.

That is the end of our podcast. Thank you to our writer Lv Weitao, translator Liu Junhuan, and copy editor Scott Pruett. We hope you enjoyed it and thank you for listening. See you next time.