Rikyu-Ki

There is something very beautiful and reverential about commemorating the death of Rikyu, the founder of the Way of Tea. Each year the Tea Room, here in London, as do all the Tea Rooms round the world, celebrates with a Tea Gathering called Rikyu-ki. Rikyu lived about 500 years agoand although he never wrote anything in his lifetime about Tea, his spirit lives on through it. On the wall in the Toka-nama is a scroll containing three Chinese characters from a poem by Rikyu written just before his death. It is not possible to translate the meaning of the scroll. However, you may perhaps consider it to mean something like "power lies within you in silence".

Before we entered the Tea Room for the Tea Gathering itself, Sensei, our Teacher, gave an address. He reminded us that there are no words to explain Tea, and it is up to each of us to come to our understanding of it. Part of the apprecation of the Way of Tea lies in the beauty of the choice of utensils, their history and relationship to each other.

Then we entered the Tea Room where, Fujii-San was our host. She is most excellent and the famous owner of the renowned Japanese Restaurant here in London called Yumi. The style of Tea was Sho-in, which is very formal, hence the dark blue carpet on top of the tatami mats.

As part of the Gathering we were served traditional Japanese Sweets, made by Miho-San, Sensei's delightful wife. They are so yummy, made from bean paste and compliment the foaming tea beautifully.