Sparkling Stars - Tea - October 18, 2014

 an empty cup
water bubbling merrily
a blackbird singing

©  G.s.k. '14

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I loved the prompt by our host at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, Chèvrefeuille.  I can feel completely in tune with the aptmosphere he relates in his post ... beginning with the time of day he's writing, which is the time of day I usually wake up and write.

I'm going to imagine that I'm in a classical tea house, which has been prepared for the Cha noYu - or The Way of  Tea.  I  imagine that the host has spent the day in meditation, preparing the room with just the right amount of charcoal in the brazier to boil the water, the seasonal flower arraingement, and each utensil has been laid out just so ...

I'm reminded of a story that I hear a long time ago about Sen no Rikyū who is considered the the historical figure who had the most influence on the chanoyu, in particular to the Wabi-cha (which is what I'm imagining above) which weighs heavily on estetics.  He was almost fanatical about creating the perfect aptmosphere of simplicity - the size of the room, the position of the every single object under his guidance became an art of precision.  Even to the placing of a drop of water on a petal.

One day, after Rikyū ahd passed a morning preparing the Wabi-cha, a young disciple came into the cerimonial room and distractedly knocked over the flower arraigement that the Master had  worked on all morning.  The student was mortified and was expecting to be disciplined.  Instead of shouting at the young man, Rikyū embraced him thanking him: this is the perfection that I had been seeking all morning!

But he was also famous for this sentence:

The Way of Tea is naught but this:

first you boil water,

then you make the tea and drink it.

Cats Tea Ceremony Tokyo

Here are some delightful haiku by Yozakura whom we have recently met here on Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

  deep silence
only the sound of boiling water
an empty cup

© Yozakura

 in this tea house
the smell of cherry blossoms
scooping hot water

© Yozakura

 all alone
at the foot of Mt. Fuji -
tea and nothing else

© Yozakura

Yozakura (1640-1716)