Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Tedious Tea Ceremony
In Daimyo or samurai, who specialize in the tea ceremony, there is a special tea room where the tea ceremony is held. A standard tea room is generally a half-sized tatami mat.
There is such a teahouse in the castle tower of Takato Castle, which was left by the previous castle generation, Lord Akiyama Nobuyo. The teahouse is exactly four and a half stacks, with tatami mats on the floor, and a calligraphy and painting hanging on the wall in the center, on which the word 'Yugen' is written.
The mystery is derived from the aesthetic consciousness of Zen Buddhism, and the word mystery is mentioned many times in the Buddhist scriptures, which expresses a hidden but not revealed, soft and far-reaching, and ineffable artistic conception. Zen Buddhism is used in various fields, such as the word "mysterious" is also used in chess. In the anime "Chess Soul", the protagonist Hikaru Shinto and Taya Yoyuki face off for the first time in the new preliminary stage, and the chess room where they are located is the Mysterious Room.
As a general's tea room, in addition to these calligraphy and paintings that fiddle with their knowledge level, they often put a famous sword. The knives are placed on a specific shelf and are arranged in such a way that the tip of the knife is up, the handle is down, and the edge is inward.
For display, the handle of the knife must be placed to the left, on the one hand is the front of the knife, on the other hand, it means that there is no threat, if the handle of the knife is to the right, it means that the knife can be drawn with the right hand, and the knife can be unsheathed at any time to hurt someone.
In the center of the tea room is a small fire pit on which a teapot boils water. The tea room is surrounded by walls on three sides, and beyond the sliding door, a cloister and a pond form a courtyard.
A bamboo tube is placed next to the pond in the courtyard, and the spring water is connected to it, but when the bamboo tube is almost full, the bamboo tube will be reversed and put into a small stone pond, and the water will continue to be stored in its original position, and so on.
When the bamboo tube is poured with water, the bottom of the stone will make a clattering sound, which is particularly crisp and elegant in this quiet courtyard.
This kind of bamboo tube water dispensing device is called 'adding water', and it has its shadow in a series of manga such as the Hokage.
'Adding water' was originally an agricultural tool that used the sound of bamboo tubes to drive away birds and wild deer at the edge of the fields. Later, it was introduced into the garden, and it is said that through the two symbols of purity, bamboo and water, it represents a kind of Zen Buddhism, which can cleanse the inner complexity.
All of the above elaborate decorations are to create an atmosphere of drinking tea in the tea party. In the Song Dynasty of China, the tea ceremony was passed down from overseas monks to Yueben, and then it was first popular among the monks who had nothing to do, and then it was spread to the ministers and warriors.
It is said that the reason why monks love to drink tea is because they can experience the bitterness of life from the bitter taste of tea, and it is unique to help comprehend a certain mysterious artistic conception. I don't know if this is true or not, but tea was a foreign product to Yuben at that time, and it was super super expensive to import it from China across the ocean.
The monk used such expensive tea to drink tea to realize Zen, this excuse is a bit like the past elementary school students asked their parents for money to buy a Xiaobawang learning machine, saying that it was to practice typing and study hard.
As the owner, Katsuyori Takeda had to boil water and clean the tea bowls, and his every move had to be in accordance with etiquette. In this waiting process, the Takeda Nobutoshi brothers, the Hoshina brothers, and Sanada Masayuki could not whisper. They can either look at the calligraphy and paintings on the wall, admire the sword, or look out over the courtyard, or listen carefully to the boiling sound of the water boiling in the teapot, accompanied by the occasional sound of the water adding to the ground.
Whether they are doing superficial work or really immersed in it, they are all in a posture that they can realize a certain Zen realm from this tea party, even if they do not realize it, they must also pretend to be a posture of sublimation of the ideological realm, indicating that everyone is together on the spiritual level, otherwise they will be despised by others.
As they slowly integrate into this realm, reaching a level of spiritual communication, it is like using the card of the elegant and lonely heart in Taiko 5, and everyone gets the effect of increasing friendship together.
Relatively speaking, Li Xiao is not so face-saving, the whole yawn for days, although there is no overstepping behavior, but it is also a look of little interest, this kind of pretending to be a tea party, he has no interest in him at all, he would rather everyone get together to fight the landlord, so the atmosphere is more harmonious.
When the water finally boiled, Takeda Katsuyori first poured a bag of tea powder into the tea bowl, and then poured the boiling water into the tea bowl with a tea whisk, quietly waiting for the tea powder to completely blend with the water. At this time, I still drink matcha, which is to grind the tea leaves into powder and then brew them.
This is also the way of drinking tea during the Song and Tang dynasties in China, but they used tea bricks or tea cakes instead, and in the Ming Dynasty, the way of drinking tea pursued the unity of heaven and man, returned to the basics, and put the pursuit of the true fragrance of tea in the first place, so it was changed from the way of making tea and drinking it to the present.
Takeda Katsuyori served the brewed tea bowl to Takeda Nobutoyo on the right, and Takeda Nobutoyo respectfully served the tea bowl, first thanked the host for his hospitality, and then slowly turned the tea bowl three times, looked at the tea, smelled the tea fragrance, and carefully examined the tea set, and finally took a small sip and passed the tea bowl to his younger brother Mochizuki Shinnaga.
Yes, this is the method of drinking invented by Qianlizong, that is, no matter how many people in the tea party, they can only drink tea in the same tea bowl. It is said that this allows participants to have a friendship of drinking a cup of tea, and it can also allow other people's emotions to blend together.
Seeing this, Li Xiao could only pray secretly, don't let anyone get AIDS, gonorrhea, SARS or something, so that all the people drinking tea behind him will hang up.
After Nobunaga Mochizuki finished drinking and brought the tea bowl to Li Xiao, Li Xiao pretended to be like it, touched the bowl of extremely bitter tea slightly with his lips, and passed the tea bowl to Sanada Masayuki who was the next one and said that he had finished drinking it.
After everyone finished drinking, Takeda Katsuyori brewed another pot and drank another round, so it was finished. Then everyone picked up the tea bowl, including the tea set, and appreciated it, and at that time, it was said that the whole Warring States were obsessed with the tea ceremony, and it had reached a kind of madness.
This includes the collection and pursuit of tea utensils, such as the Demon King of the Oda family, who is not only a tea ceremony lover, but also likes to collect all kinds of tea utensils, such as his famous 'Ninety-Nine Eggplant'.
The Demon King not only loved the tea ceremony, but also developed his own military generals to like, the most famous being the later Taige. Taiko was not only obsessed with the tea ceremony, but also collected tea utensils to the point of madness, and it is said that the funniest thing about him was that he once obtained a Nanban product, which was regarded by him as a high-quality tea set to entertain guests because it looked like a kettle, and later learned that it was a night pot used by the Nanban people.
It can be seen that no culture kills people, not only that, but the funny thing is that the glorious game is also further brain-dead, such as Nobunaga's ambition, after collecting the tea set, you can actually get a bonus of politics + a few + a few, Li Xiao has never understood, the tea set can increase the charm of the forget it, it's about political.
After everyone praised the tea set collected by Takeda Katsuyori, the tea set appreciation was completed, and then some tea desserts were served one after another, a few pieces of grilled eel per person, a small plate of pickled radish, a few glutinous rice balls, a few pieces of seaweed, and a bowl of miso soup. These add up to only enough food for Li Xiao to eat half-full, but after drinking so much bitter tea, these dim sum tasted exceptionally delicious in the eyes of Takeda Shenglai.
At this time, the tea party is over, and everyone can finally chat and fart without any scruples.