We clean out of respect for our guests, for the makers of the utensils and for the memory of all that have come before us in the four hundred year history of chanoyu.
Hands, natsume, chaire, chawan, chashaku….all are ritually cleansed. There I said it again. Before they are used they are cleaned. So once in the chashitsu it is not necessary to clean them, but it is necessary to purify them. Of course, I cannot take credit for this intuition just for realizing it after many years of study. Making tea is the tip of an iceberg of such depth that a lifetime of study barely suffices to understand all there is to learn.
But let’s get back to Sei/Purity. There is the outward manifestation and then there is the internal dialog it engenders. When preparing koicha/thick tea the chaire/thick-tea container is purified in an intricate way. I am not sure I have the skill to describe this but I will try. The purification is performed with a fukusa. A fukusa is a square silk cloth about 11” on a side. It spends most of its life folded into 16ths tucked away in an inner fold of a kimono.
Men’s fukusa are usually a deep purple. Women have more choice when it comes to color. Once taken out in public it needs to be carefully inspected. Held at each corner it inhales and exhales slowly as we do. This is called, yoyo-sabaki or four-sided folding. When I do this it seems as if the earth is slowing on its axis. I breathe four even abdominal breaths, and begin a process of transforming it into a shape more conducive to purifying the small ceramic tea container and its lid.
What was once an eleven-inch square of 2-ply silk is now a little packet of energy. Silk is inherently springy and if it gets away from me this golf ball size bundle will open like a parachute. It focuses my attention. First the far side of the lid is wiped then the near in two straight horizontal motions. Next in a fluid motion one fold is allowed to open against the side of the chaire. The chaire is now turned — not too fast — counterclockwise for three revolutions.
A simple thing to describe on paper is a devilish thing to do in reality. But chanoyu is a culture of doing. We make tea for our guest. We do not film a perfect performance and show it to them. And as with any human endeavors, whether it be as simple as tying our shoelaces or as complicated as space flight there is always the risk of failure. To be human is to learn by our mistakes and even if we do not, well that is a lesson in itself.
The utensils in chanoyu are carefully, specifically chosen for the guest. In the USA it is true that we do not always have access to a multitude of choices but nonetheless the spirit exists. And because of the above, once tea has been served it is appropriate for the guest to ask to see certain of the utensils. So once again the chaire will be purified.
This is not a chore. It internalizes Sei/Purity. The process brings order to my psyche. It allows me to appreciate where I stand in this world of contradictions. For only then can I be aware of my inner nature and only then can I truly offer purity to my guest.
May 2014
