Tetsubin and Tea Ceremony (Was: Non-enameled Tetsubin)

Hi all--

It's me aga> I have heard it said -- I have *no* experience -- that the

iron of the tesubin could flatten the taste of the tea. But, > you say it adds sweetness. I'll just have a try as soon as > I get my hands on one. I *think* that the iron might > enhance Japanese teas which can tend more toward > astringency than Chinese teas that usually don't. I agree > that the tetsubin is a pleasing accouterment, if I might > use that word, to the tea table.

The hot water for tea ceremony ritual is normally boiled in an iron kettle called a "kama." This differs from a "tetsubin" in that a tetsubin has a handle and a spout, while a kama has no handle, has a lid on top, and you dip water out of it with a bamboo ladle. The

*materials* of the two, however, are the same.

I know that the tetsubin is an intrinsic part of the Japanese

> tea ceremony, but the ceremony deploys matcha, which is > generally inferior to leaf tea, even at its best; and besides, > the ceremony is about anything and everything, save tea.

Tea professionals (cha-jin) talk about how the iron of the kettle improves the taste of the matcha, but, honestly, I'm not convinced that many of them are very interested in the nuances of the taste of the tea (I wouldn't go as far as Michael in saying that it's about everything

*except* the tea, but the gist is right: the tea ceremony is such an agglomeration of rich symbolism that it's hard to regularly focus on the taste of the tea.)

In case there are other tea ceremony followers here, I should note that there *are* special tea ceremony "games" (called cha-kabuki in Omote-Senke) in which the flavor of the tea is the key focus. The Omote version (which I know best) involves the preparation of 5 bowls of tea, using matcha from three different sources. The first two bowls are identified (with ritual names, not the actual identifiers for the actual tea; a ritual equivalent to saying "This is Tea A, and this is Tea B.") The next three bowls are served, and the guests make a record of what they think bowls #3, #4 and #5 are (A, B, or not A/B). I've only done this a few times (it's a relatively rare ritual), and, truth be known, most tea professionals are not very good at this game (and they don't seem especially embarassed about this fact, either!) (I'm working without my field notes right now-- writing in a cafe while Christmas-travelling-- This is more-or-less right though.)

Generally, even among elites, if the prepared matcha is critiqued, it has to do with the *texture* or *temperature* of the drink. Is it lumpy? (shoulda sifted the tea better!). Is the tea too hot? (learning to control the heat of the water in the kettle, especially when using charcoal, is tricky stuff.) These people also pay more attention to the taste/texture, etc., of the matcha when they are drinking it in non-ceremonial settings (served very informally, perhaps to a guest, while sitting on the couch and half-watching TV!)

On the other hand, at the end of a long tea gathering (lasting between

4 and 8 hours), especially on a cold winter day, the water that has been in the kettle the whole time is served by itself, with no extra anything, in cups normally used to serve leaf tea. This drink is called "sayu" (literally "white hot water"), and, as this is part of the wind-down after the ceremony, there aren't dozens of things competing for your attention, and people *do* drink it with focus and usually discuss the flavor of the water. I've heard some people say it is "sweet," and others say it is "flat," (but in a *nice* kinda way.) The sweetness is attributed to the iron content, the flatness to the fact that the water was boiled/simmered so long.

I have *not* heard anyone making detailed comments about how the iron-boiled water affects the *tea* in any detailed way... only when the hot water is consumed by itself.

If the long-boiled water is not served at the end of the ritual (for example, on a sweltering summer day), lots of cha-jin will pour that hot water into a thermos bottle (used only for this purpose) and save it for the next tea gathering. (The use of the thermos bottle seems to be about it being a well-designed tool to carry liquids, not about conserving the heat).

*Part* of the value of this long-boiled water is symbolic: The hot water is the left-over result of long and intense ritual, and thus needs to be treated with respect. (This is *not* to totally discount the special qualities of long-boiled water).

And-- for what it's worth-- most people in Japan with a professional interest in tea (tea ceremony professionals or tea dealers) consider matcha to be the pinnacle of Japanese tea production. Yes, there are different grades of matcha, and yes, there are wonderful leaf-teas that are the result of exacting production standards, but even so, culturally, matcha is the prize. This doesn't mean that everybody

*likes* matcha, even in Japan! It's just that, culturally, as a category, it is accorded the highest status among all teas.

Gotta run-- Happy New Year to everybody! 来年もよろしくお願いします! (Rainen mo yorosiku onegai-simasu! Please be nice to me next year too!)

james-henry holland

Reply to
Thitherflit
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That would be

1997 Holland, James Henry II Allusion, Performance, and Status: The Social and Aesthetic World of Elite Practitioners of the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Ithaca: Department of Anthropology, Cornell University.

Right?

Unfortunately, not published in book form?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Guilty as charged ;) There *are* a few articles though ;)

Happy New Year!

james-henry holland

Reply to
Thitherflit

Could you cite, please?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

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