Hh9 — On the Art of Mitate
TOKYO | How a tea ceremony functions both as a performance space and a hub for connection
WORDS BY MIDORI FURUHATA
ILLUSTRATION BY ALICIA JUNGSWIRTH
The Japanese tea ceremony is a game of hospitality and esprit that can be enjoyed via sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. While the ceremony can be observed as a “performance,” it relies on a serendipity — contained within the concept of mitate — that extends beyond the realm of a performing art. Like a performance, mitate indeed presents an occasion for a pleasant experience alongside companions, or once-in-a-lifetime encounters, in any place and with any person you meet. The point is to entertain and be entertained, and to cast new eyes on the various utensils, tools, and objects used in the tea ceremony. These objects are not a means, but an end in themselves. But in doing so, you inadvertently create tools to form all sorts of relationships with other participants in a way that’s similar to an interactive theatre performance.
Soshin Kimura is a Japanese Tea Grand Master in Tokyo, but he insists there is no single word in English to describe his profession. The same is true for “tea ceremony”—also known as Sado and Cha-no-yu. “If you come to a real tea ceremony,” says Kimura in conversation with Cannopy Magazine, “you will see that it is not just a performing art. It’s about shortening the distance between utensils and people.” Indeed, the culture of tea for the Japanese cannot be described by the term “tea ceremony.” It is more than merely drinking tea; it is closely linked to an aesthetic, and to the performance of an aesthetic, though there are no observers in the common sense. it is the very philosophy that underpins Japanese daily life and hospitality, with elements both of performance and of L'Art de Vivre (the art of living).
In addition to presiding over the Urasenke and Hoshinkai schools, Kimura has written books on Cha-no-yu, appeared in magazines, and supervised the construction of a new tea room in Salone del Mobile a Milano. In his free flowing conversation with Cannopy Magazine on the art of mitate, he recommends finding an opportunity to experience a real and authentic tea ceremony through the interplay of architecture, gardens, flowers, hanging scrolls, utensils, space, atmosphere, temperature and humidity, the scent of incense, the subtlety of sounds, serenity and tension, confectionaries, provisions, green tea, tea cups, brief conversations, hospitality—and the endless etcetera of the art of making tea in good company.
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