Free Tea by Laura Martín

serving of tea, and was not used for everyday activities. The threshold of the tea hut became a symbolic boundary which, when crossed, allowed people to enter into a different realm and participate in something sacred and ritual-istic, juxtaposed with their normal, everyday lives. Thus, the space lent itself to a deeper connection between the human and the divine.
    According to Herbert Plutschow, author of “An Anthropological Perspective on the Tea Ceremony,” the tearoom becomes “a world unto itself, where continuity of ordinary space and time, dependent on our physical existence, ceases to exist. Within such a room, one is a disembodied spirit, unencumbered by material limitations. In such a room, there is no absolute time, only the ever changing ‘now.’”
    The idea of serving tea in places separate from ordinary living space was readily accepted by those tired of the ostentation of the great tea debaucheries. Small, humble teahouses, called soan cha , were actually simple, thatched-roofed huts. As these small structures gained in popularity, features were added that helped practitioners feel a greater separation from their everyday lives when they sat and shared tea.
    Shuko’s idea was to simplify the tea ceremony in all ways. He was also one of the first to encourage the use of Japanese utensils and ware, instead of Chinese. Trade between Japan and China had reopened in 1401 , and Japan was again much enamored with all things Chinese during the fifteenth century. The tea ceremony was an opportunity to show off beautiful and expensive Chinese ware to one’s friends. While Shuko did not dismiss the beauty found in implements and utensils made in China, he did suggest the advantages of using wares created in Japan. In a letter to one of his disciples, Shuko advocated an equality between the Chinese and Japanese cultures, writing that it was good to find worthwhile and admirable traits in Japanese things as well as those from China.
    Shuko’s disciple was Takeno Joo ( 1504 – 1555 ), the son of a wealthy merchant who lived in the port city of Sakai. He was interested in many of the arts, and in Sakai he was able to see first hand many of the imports from China, including the newest tea utensils. By the end of his life, he had accumulated an unprecedented sixty different kinds of tea utensils, while most tea masters only had three or four. In spite of his love of refined art, he believed in the teachings of Shuko, who advocated simplicity, particularly in terms of sharing tea. He even simplified Shuko’s four-anda-half-mat tea hut, replacing the paper walls with earthen ones, and using bamboo lattice in place of the fine woods. He preferred the most simple setting possible and the most straightforward utensils. His tearoom was large enough for just five people.
    Rulers and Nobles: Nobunaga and Hideyoshi
    Portuguese traders first came to Japan in 1549 , bringing with them the religion of Christianity and opening up new markets. One of the results of this was a new middle class of merchants, who quickly became powerful in their own right. During the sixteenth century, the city of Sakai was the most active commercial center in Japan and home to a thriving middle class. As a result, the city was ruled more democratically than others in Japan, and the administration of the city was run by merchants and businessmen. Of course, these men took care not to insult or in any way disturb the powerful lords and warriors, and they made efforts to establish and maintain friendly ties with them. The tea ceremony presented the perfect opportunity for doing this, since one of the essential elements of the ceremony was equality. Tea gatherings were generally small affairs, held in private homes.
    In addition to these small at-home affairs, government leaders also reinstated the use of the tea ceremony for political purposes, as had been done in the fourteenth century. One of the best examples of this