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The tea ceremony is also known as chanoyu, or the A Way of this millennial drink, in Japan. It is a very prevalent and popular practice in Japan.
It has its roots in Chinese traditional Buddhist culture and brews drinking techniques.
Since the Tang dynasty and until the Yuan dynasty, Japan regularly sent envoys and monks to China. They returned with more than Buddhist doctrines.
They brought the knowledge of planting the trees, the techniques of infusing the plant, the use of backflow incense burners, and, most important of all, the Chinese Cha drinking philosophy back to Japan. Combined with the traditional Japanese domestic culture, a unique art of Japanese tea ceremony emerged.
The Southern Song dynasty, which spanned the 12th and 13th Centuries, was a key period in the dissemination of Chinese culture abroad.
The Japanese monk Eisai twice traveled to China, when he returned from his first trip, he brought back more than 60 volumes of scripture and tea seeds.
He went to China again in 1187, then went to China again in 1187, and he then returned to Nagasaki four years later.
Later he founded two monasteries in Kyoto and Kamakura and started the Rinzai school of Buddhism, He planted the trees inside the monasteries and advocated the study of Zen, and promoted brew drinking for the rest of his life.
The Japanese tea ceremony is normally performed indoors in a tea room paired with the Incense burner backflow
Meanwhile, the exquisite Chinese tea wares, particularly the tenmoku and celadon teacups, were also introduced to Japan from Zhejiang, China.
In the Japanese tea ceremony, tenmoku tea bowls are of the highest importance.
When the Japanese tea ceremony was first developed, the tea wares used were exclusively tenmoku.
Later as the tea ceremony became prevalent, common tea bowls were also used.
As Japanese and Korean imitations became widely used, Tenmoku teacups became even rarer and more valuable.
They are now only used at important and grand occasions and in some specific schools of tea ceremonies.
The most direct founder of the Japanese tea ceremony was a monk in the 15th Century by the name of Murata Juko.
He combined different aspects of tea drinking practice by the common people and the grand tea parties of the nobilities, and added elements of Buddhism.
Later Sen Rikyu made new modifications and created the four basic rules of the Way of Consuming the beverage: harmony, respect, clarity, and peace.
For his major influence in the shaping of the Japanese tea ceremony, Sen Rikyu is revered as the "Tea Master." Now, although there are a number of different styles of ceremonies, they all follow the four fundamental principles.
The art of the Japanese tea ceremony is closely linked to Buddhist philosophy, and still exhibits hints of Chinese influence of the Tang and Song periods,
