Chadō

Chadō

Japanese tea ceremony–or chadō, in Japanese–is a ceremony celebrating the detail of preparing and drinking tea. The practice of tea ceremony came from the philosophical belief that each meeting should be cherished because it can never be recreated. The values of a tea ceremony are harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. Different ceremonies happen at different times of year, times of day, and venues. They are structured around these details. But consistently there will be highly ritualized drinking and brewing vessels, matcha tea, a particular order guests enter a venue, ritual cleaning by each guest, and ritual display of visual art or floral arrangements. Chadō is connected to Zen-Buddhism. And its attention to detail and its celebration of the ordinary invoke that clean mark of Zen-Buddhist wisdom.