Blog Comments

I am now officially jealous. When I went home for the holidays, I had to search all over for a decent facility. I finally ended up at Abernathy Grange, which I must say is wonderful. Wooden floors and well kept it seems like the grange hall was my only saving grace! BREC sounds pretty awesome...regardless of the tax hike...(uhoh...sounding too leftist again).

Sounds like Budo Heaven to me. Actually depending upon where you live, the local Parks and Recreation Departments can do some amazing stuff. Here in Baton Rouge, our local parks department, BREC, is one of the best in the country and we have community recreation centers and other facilities all over the place... and taxpayers supported of course.

Oh Snap! I received a mark of "two stars"! Someone doesn't like my work and won't tell me why. Aww.....

Been thru several tea ceremonies in Japan and would have to concur.

I do prefer English tea ceremony. Especailly with the scones and clotted cream. the focus for English tea is indeed more the company and the quality of the scones.

Good thoughts on the difference between European ettiquette and Japanese tradition. Very nice thoughts and I would have to agree.

On table manners ... ok, yea. As I am held accountable to much of what I write on the internet, allow me just to say, I am with you on that one big brother! Ha Ha Ha

Cool stuff...
Japanese table manners generally leave a lot to be desired....IMHO. Some folks are okay... mostly men eat like swine and smack their mouths with yum-yum sounds. I don't know how many times I have had to sit on the train next to a "business man" who was eating dry squid that stunk to high heaven while being as noisy as possible. Then the slurping of beer, oh sweet barleycorn is that off-putting. In restaurants it gets much worse. For example some fool was eating a steak two tables over and was actually being so rude and filthy he spit a small chunk of partially chewed meat into my drink. Hideous. I've had dogs that had more manners.
I think this comes from the home, where you either have a dad that makes you sit and eat silently without making any noise (so you really never learn anything about polite behavior in a social setting when it comes to table etiquette) or someone who never had anyone to pay attention at the way they gobble down food. Fortunately there are a lot of people that do not act or eat that way, but I have seen a great deal more that do.

Anyway, I would put an English tea service over a Japanese one any-day-of-the-week. In English tea the focus is on the company which is augmented by the tea and cakes. In Japan, the focus is purely on the ceremony and I grow tired of it quickly. There are stories rolling around how high ranking bushi who would use tea ceremony as a form of meditation to calm themselves. I happen to think that waiting that long for a cup of tea is less than soothing. Give me that damned tea already, get on with it!

Nono.
Most koryu arts and traditional systems are focused on forms because that is the way they were taught, and because what they do is generally the most efficient way to do something. They focus on the thing and not the ceremony around the thing. For example, in KJJR jujutsu, you learn most things in partner kata form. The kata begins and ends with a formal bowing and then gets to the meat.

In this case, the reiho is simply a form of etiquette in beginning and ending an exercise. But the point of the exercise is to properly learn the techniques you have to do (the results) and not the etiquette, nor the 'self-reflection' or religious aspect. With kyudo (to draw the parallel with Russ' post) the results (hitting the target) come distant second or even third to the goal of perfecting the formality in the movements and the 'self-reflecting' aspects. Just because some formality is involved does not mean that the art is obsessed with it.

Think of it like table manners. A certain decorum is involved when eating. I am not even talking about which hand holds knife and fork (or chopsticks) but things like eating with your mouth closed, not belching, not talking with your mouth full... etc. That does not mean that we are obsessed with etiquette and don't care about the food. It means that we should show some manners so that bad manners don't spoil the eating experience for other people.

And so we come to martial arts again - including kyudo, aikido, and most koryu arts that are fascinated with "tools" and "lineages" and "forms" rather then with content... Russ has opened Pandora's box here

Your description would also match kyudo imo
From what I've seen of it, it is the relentless drilling of well defined movements into a robotic pattern, and a search for 'self'.
On top of that, many kyudo practicioners say that hitting the target is irrelevant.

You have a good point there...
But allow me to add this:Concentration is not particular to zen nor is it self focused/selfish. That's just paying attention to what one is doing. Of course any religion that calls itself nothing can easily call itself everything, whether it's true or not. What I am talking about here is the opposite side if the coin, the Zen tendency to ignore things. In my opinion, the whole business becomes an excercise reductio ad absurdum, asking one to ignore what is really important and focus on things that are mote-sized in comparison.

For example...the mythic founder of Sado supposidly talked about the tenants of tea ceremony and the flower arrangement. He said that the flowers need to look like they were still in the field. Unfortunatly, that's ignoring the fact that they are not in the field and asking you to imitate reality. Maybe I am taking this the wrong way, but if one wants them to look like they are in the field- leave them in the field.
Furthermore, do a google search for "Japanese Zen charity" and see what you come up with..nada.

This is a great post.
There is just one small thing I don't agree with, and that is this:

Enter in the Zen argument. It's a form of meditation. It's a form of self control and balance. Meanwhile, outside your doors people are suffering and in need of your help...but don't bother to look, one's too busy "getting into oneself" to bother. The real world is of no concern and a distraction. Block that out. What one is doing is more important than the rest of the world. Sound familiar? In the West, we have a word for this. Selfish

We all spend some of our time just on ourselves, where we focus on something or othe.
You do so during your practice, I do so during mine. When I enter the dojo, I leave all other concerns at the door. Once on the mats, I focus on MA practice and nothing else. And so do you, probably.

So if tea ceremony is someonse's way to 'leave his problems at the door', that is not necessarily selfish.

GREAT ARTICLE! I wanted to write something similar ages ago, but I do not live in Japan ("lack of credibility") and my English is not so good. But all of this is so true, so well spotted and even better argued, I applaud to you!

Originally Posted by Eliz Seuferling

Personally I am more of a Mr. Coffee-served-straight-from-the-pot kind of girl lol

Heehee! Now that is high culture. Coffee is truly a wonderful thing. Luckily for me, it's fully invaded Japan and it's something I can find easily. Nothing better than a fresh brew waiting for you in the AM...that is truly magic.

I guess I was one of the "uncivilized" kids as I was wholly unfamiliar with the practice prior to your post. Thanks for introducing it to me. Watching the vid made me think of a Jewish Seder that I was invited to. By the time they finished all of their ritual story telling, I was ready to tackle the seder plate and dig in for myself.

I cannot really comment on your thoughts as I do not know anything of the mindset surrounding a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. As an American kid with Irish parents, I can comment on the importance of tea service. I knew the importance of properly serving tea to guests by the time I was old enough to walk and talk. There was no ritual aspect to it but their was an unspoken element of manners and propriety. There was a polite course of action. The tools of the trade (down to and including the linens) were all family heirlooms passed down through the generations.

Personally I am more of a Mr. Coffee-served-straight-from-the-pot kind of girl lol

Glad you liked it! It's a work in progress, hopefully there will a little more eventually.

Very interesting. I always enjoy reading the history and legends surrounding ryu-ha.

Originally Posted by Koshu

Russ --- Here's hoping none of the arts you study require you to don yoroi!

Even if they did, I couldn't wear it. I'm a house compared to most folks and the 'do' fit on my shins.

Russ --- Here's hoping none of the arts you study require you to don yoroi!

Good posting Russ. Sadly this crazed obsession with being tough and not looking out for heat/hydration related problems seems to be almost universal and not confined to the Japanese. I can point out a lot of examples right here in the good ol USA.