SweetPersimmon

はじをすて人に物とひ習うべし是ぞ上手の基なりける haji o sute hito ni mono tohi narau beshi kore zo jozu no motoi nari keru Sometimes person may feel embarrassed...

ならひつつ見てこそ習はずよしあしいふは愚かなりけり naraitsutsu mitekoso narae narawazu ni yoshiashi iu wa oroka narikeri One learns by looking and studying. Withou...

稽古とは一より習ひ十を知り十よりかへるもとのその一 Keiko towa ichi yori narai ju o shiri ju yori kaeru moto no sono ichi Practice constitutes learning from one, be...

こころざし　深き　人には　いくたびもあはれみ　深く　奥ぞ　教ふる Kokorozashi fukaki hito niwa ikutabi mo awareme fukaku okuzo oshifuru. To the student who has a deep de...

I have been meaning to talk about the 100 teaching poems of Rikyu, (Rikyu Hyakushu) and indeed, there are references scattered throughout th...

The rain has started here in the Pacific Northwest and preparations are underway for Robiraki, one of the big tea events of the year.   We w...

I've had a request in the comments about how to tame your fukusa. So here is part 3 on your fukusa. Historical Note: The size of the f...

I have added a link to my good friend Maggie Chula's blog .  She is an internationally published haiku poet and has just posted an excel...

"One learns by looking and studying.  Without understanding completely, one cannot criticize."   ~ from the 100 poems of Rikyu ...

Rikyu says: The very heart which wants to enter the Way is the best teacher. Sensei says : Beginning teachers want to teach the heart of...

The essence of Tea is knowing contentment. The Way of Tea is a means of knowing satisfaction with each and every thing.  If one knows conten...

A chanoyu master named Hechikan living in Yamashina once criticized his contemporary Sen Rikyu as a black hearted flatterer striving to plea...

Konomimono literally means favored things. It is a general term for tea items that owe their designs to eminent chanoyu masters, including a...

Before Sen Rikyu there was tea and before Bach there was music. ~Hisashi Yamada

Sensei says: How you are in the tea room is how you are in the world. Haji o sute hito ni mono toi naraubeshi kore zojozu no motoi narikeru ...

During the Friends in Tea conference, there were two formally scheduled chakai, the opening chakai the first day and the closing chakai on t...

It was a little early for me to sit zazen at 4:30 am with the monks, but I did get up for the 6:00 Chabako tea that was planned for that mor...

May is when we change to the summer season in tea. The fire is moved from the sunken hearth to the furo or brazier, to the left side of the...

Many of my students are at a point of acquiring tea utensils. With ebay and the internet it is relatively easy to get tea stuff from Japan....

“There was a Chajin of Sakai who had a tea caddy called Sessan and he used it when Rikyu came. But Rikyu thought nothing of it so its owner...