Tea ceremony glossary

A thick-tea jar whose shoulder projects horizontally below the mouth; among the most highly ranked forms.

The iron kettle that heats the water; the centre of the hearth and the source of the sound called matsukaze.

A pad or ring on which the hot kettle is set down when it is lifted off the fire.

Plain, durable domestic bowls from Karatsu that improve with use; the most widely used bowls in daily practice.

The importation of Chinese tea utensils that sustained the Higashiyama taste, peaking in the Muromachi period.

The mid-Edo tea master (1719–1807) who carried Omotesenke's tea from the Kansai region to Edo.

The culture of 1624–1644, in which Kobori Enshu, Shokado Shojo, and Hon'ami Koetsu were active.

Fine cracks in the glaze surface, technically a flaw but valued in tea as an appearance that develops with use.

Tea practice conducted within school education; for many Japanese practitioners the first encounter with tea.

Momoyama Mino bowls with a soft yellow glaze, green copper spots, and scorch marks.

Eisai's treatise of 1214, the oldest Japanese book on tea, arguing for its medicinal effect.

A full-height entrance allowing a high-ranking guest to enter standing, in contrast to the crawl-through door.

The certificate issued by a school's head permitting a student to learn each stage of practice.

Kobori Enshu's aesthetic, adding brightness and formal poise to the wabi and sabi of Rikyu.

Tea practice from the Meiji period, reshaped by the collapse of warrior patronage, new collectors, and women's participation.

Breaking the seal on a jar of new tea aged over the summer and tasting the year's tea; the most formal occasion.

The treatment, flare, and thickness of a vessel's rim; for a bowl it decides how the tea drinks.

Devising something particular for this sitting and these guests, while staying within a school's conventions.

Black-glazed Raku bowls, the most formal of the type, which set off the deep green of thick tea.

The Muromachi manual of connoisseurship and room display that records the norms of shoin tea.