On the path of Japanese Tea Leaf reading

One of my earliest memories with Tommie comes from when I came to live with my mother Tamaki Ishihara Manzanares, I was 10 years old.  She took me to Grandview Gardens in China Town where we were served tea while dining.  She showed me the tea leaves remaining at the bottom of my cup while telling me she could see my future in those leaves.  It would be 48 more years before I could walk the land of my Japanese ancestors.  I still look very carefully at the bottom of my tea cup and have discovered that I can also see my past. Those remarkable days with her while growing up.

Part 1: Tea first arrived when Japanese Envoys returned from China in the 8th century.  Though tea originated in China, it has become “one of the most quintessentially Japanese experiences" where guests

From Wikipedia:  The Buddhist monks Kūkai and Saichō may have been the first to bring tea seeds to Japan. The first form of tea brought from China was probably brick tea. Tea became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.

Tea consumption became popular among the gentry during the 12th century, after the publication of Eisai's Kissa Yōjōki. Uji, with its strategic location near the capital at Kyoto, became Japan's first major tea-producing region during this period. Beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries, Japanese tea culture developed the distinctive features for which it is known today, and the Japanese tea ceremony emerged as a key component of that culture.

In the following centuries, production increased and tea became a staple of the general public. The development of sencha in the 18th century led to the creation of distinctive new styles of green tea which now dominate tea consumption in Japan. In the 19th and 20th centuries, industrialization and automation transformed the Japanese tea industry into a highly efficient operation, capable of producing large quantities of tea despite Japan's limited arable land area.

Part 2:  The Tea.    A peaceful side trip just a few minutes away from busy streets of Kyoto.

The next time you’re in Kyoto... just 15 minutes away 
Reading Tea Leaves 

Part  3:  A Culture of Peace:  The Japanese Ceremony, Chanoyu, "Way of Tea, wabicha elevates hospitality to a form of art, a way of being. Guests take their shoes off before entering the tea room.  Click Here for more about The Japanese Tea Ceremony which teaches us that "every meeting should be treasured because it can never be fully recaptured”. --Sen no Rikyu 1522-1591. In a Wabicha tea ceremony simplicity is held preeminent.

Photo credit: japan.travel

A Culture of Peace

Part 4: The History of the Tiny Tea Room Entrance click HERE.

Photo credit muza-chan.net

The nijiriguchi　躙口  is a "wriggle-in” 60 by 65 centimeter entrance for guests in a rustic style tea ceremony room. Upon entering, first your hands, then your head, then one knee... symbolizing that all guests are equal in this tea room.  The host uses the regular door. 

Part 5 Quest for Tea: a documentary

Quest for Tea II