Hut of this Day: The Japanese Tea Ceremony Today
The New Way of Tea exhibition showcases the culture of traditional tea ceremonies.
September/October 2002
By Andrea M. Couture
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This eared water jar of the late sixteenth century is nearly one-foot high. Japan Society Gallery
Photo Courtesy Japan Society Gallery
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A venerable, nuanced practice refined by sixteenth-century samurai warriors and merchants, chanoyu—the Japanese tea ceremony—lives on. Evidence of its continuing hold on both the public spirit and the creative imagination, even in the West, could be seen in New York City during the Japan Society and Asia Society’s exhibition The New Way of Tea last winter. The popular show featured seven tea houses, huge paintings, and 100 tea utensils spanning 400 hundred years of diverse arts and crafts.
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A dewy path (roji), sprinkled with water that lends a marked freshness to the air, takes visitors through a quiet landscape to the tea house. Stepping stones are deliberately positioned for self-conscious walking; a water basin stands ready to wash away the outside world. Everything flows together, intermingling time and space, purifying the spirit.
Featured is the quintessential teahouse, the Konnichi-an (Hut of This Day), a full-scale replica of the 1646 original in Kyoto, a designated national treasure. Its wood and paper materials feature just the essentials: a sunken hearth and board for tea preparation, a cupboard for utensils, and a place for hanging scrolls. There is always a vase of seasonal flowers in keeping with the profound appreciation of nature so characteristic of the Japanese. The hut’s diminutive size is perfect for intimate encounters, and it is an excellent reference point for bouncing off the wild extravaganzas of the modern teahouse design also featured in the exhibition.
Upon entering the tea house, you immediately notice a painted scroll and bow to its wisdom and your host’s message, in this case a 200-year-old quote from Zen monk Sengai: “A parent dies, a child dies, then a grandchild dies.” Because living an ordinary life is a luxury of peacetime, the exhibition was dedicated to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, from whom the natural order of things had been taken away. Seated on tatami mats, guests pull out fans from their kimonos and place them on the floor, demarcating personal space and precluding intrusion.