Kaiseki is the meal served to guests in the first half of a full gathering. Its proper function is to take the edge off hunger so that thick tea can be tasted at its best. Built on one soup and three dishes, it arranges what is seasonal plainly rather than exhaustively, and in this it differs in character from the banquet cuisine also called kaiseki.
Origins
The name is said to derive from the account of Zen monks placing warmed stones against the body (kai-seki, "breast stone") to endure hunger during training. Within the lineage of Takeno Joo and Sen no Rikyu, the food of a gathering, initially called tenshin or kaiseki with different characters, was gradually organised under this term. Throughout, the intent has been that this is food for the sake of the tea.
Structure
The dishes come in order: mukozuke, nimono-wan, yakimono, shiizakana, a clear soup, hassun, and the closing group of pickles, hot water, and final soup.
A necessary distinction
In English, "kaiseki" almost always means the elaborate multi-course haute cuisine served at high-end Japanese restaurants. That is a different word: a homophone written with different characters, meaning roughly "meeting seat" — banquet food. Tea kaiseki is its ancestor but not the same thing: it is deliberately restrained, and a host who produced a luxurious meal would be judged to have misunderstood the occasion.
Sources
- 懐石（デジタル大辞泉 / 日本大百科全書 / 改訂新版 世界大百科事典） / コトバンク
Supports: 「懐石」の語が、禅僧が温石を懐に入れて空腹を凌いだ故事に由来すること。本来の茶席の食事は質朴を旨とし、味噌仕立ての汁に向付・煮物・焼物の三菜を合わせた一汁三菜が基本形であること（本文が根拠として引く『南方録』は現代の学術研究では利休没後に成立した後世の編纂物とされており、ここでは南方録に依らない辞典の記述のみを典拠とする）
About this article
Edited by the operator of Chaen (a one-person operation) / Last updated:
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Related terms
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Finding sufficiency of mind within insufficiency and plainness; one of the root concepts of tea practice.
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The principle that every gathering is unrepeatable, and should therefore be treated as if it will never occur again.
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One of the private memoranda from Sen-house circles, valuable as an unedited record of actual practice.
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