静心 Shizu-Kokoro

09/03/2025

In early spring, we welcome the season by using utensils and/or sweets that carry poetic name related to uguisu and plum trees in Chado.

"Harutsuge-Dori" means a spring-announcing bird, it refers to Uguisu, the Japanese bush warbler.

This theme has been one of the favorites in Japanese poetry since ancient times.

From a famous spring poem, comes a beautiful story: the emperor's servant requested a girl to bestow a lovely plum tree from her garden for the emperor. With her gracious offering, she tied a letter with a poem on the tree.

Later, the emperor was moved by the poem's words and returned the tree. It read, "It is honorable to obey the order of the emperor, but how can I answer if I’m asked, 'Where is my home?" by the uguisu".

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02/03/2025

On March 3rd, Japan celebrates Girl's Day to wish young girls a bright future.

This holiday originated from tradtional customs that pray for children's health and happinness by using dolls. These display dolls are called "Hina Ningyo" in Japanese, meant to embody the figure of a young prince and princess in their traditonal attire.

During this season in the tea room, it's ideal to use a container like the "Hina Ningyo", and displays peach flowers, a symbolic floral image of Girl's Days.

We also enjoy "Hina-arare": small and sweet rice crackers colored pink, green, and white. Each color has a meaning: white represents snow, green represents tree buds, and pink represents life.

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19/12/2024

Under the sunny sky in the autumn season, we held a training session for “Chaji”.

Chaji is an authentic tea gathering including enjoying two types of matcha tea, light and thick ones, accompanied by a 2 hour-long Kanseki course meal. 

In this 4 hours special event, the host and guests collaborate with each other in harmony and graceful fluidity to create a memorable time together. 

A Chaji has plenty of elements to prepare besides tea:
We planned and cooked each dish in the meal, and made sweets from scratch. We also burned charcoal to boil water in the same original way as the pioneers of Chado did. Tried to recreate all the Chaji-specific utensils such as this old style of broom made of bracken and palm was very interesting!

Conducting Chaji reminds us of the importance of being part of nature, and continues our appreciation for it.

30/10/2024

In October, we start feeling signs of autumn by cooler air and scent of seasonal flowers🍂 For tearoom, this is the month we move the position of iron kettle closer to guests, allowing them to feel more warmth as temperatures drops.

Gogyo-dana (a shelf unit used during tea-making procedure) is a popular utensil used at this time to enhance the feeling of changing seasons.

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It encompasses all five elements in nature in one setting:
Shelf made by bamboo and wood materials represents “wood”, a furo (brazier) represents “soil”, an iron kettle sitting on the brazier is then put into the shelf, represents “metal”, “water”, and “fire”.

As autumn is harvesting season, we are more appreciative of the blessings from nature!

09/10/2024

Learn about matcha and tea ceremony during your stay to Tokyo 🍵🇯🇵

We are grateful to be connected with Beyond Academy , they bring wonderful people from all over the world to learn about traditional Japanese culture here at Shizu Kokoro Chado School.

We love to introduce the concept of Chado to people whom might not even tried matcha before!

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29/09/2024

This uniquely designed utensil “Cha-bako”, is one of the hundreds of Temae (tea making procedure) styles that could be categorized by season, special utensils, and level of training in Chado.

All the utensils required are contained compactly in the Cha-bako box, so it’s convenient for impromptu tea gatherings anywhere. They are beautifully put together.

As Cha-bako existed over 400 years ago, it is conceivable that during the civil war era, Samurai traveled with this along their trips for the battles, to ease their mind from such intense and stressful time.

Today, Cha-bako is enjoyed as a picnic style temae in the nature, like in a garden or park, while we reminisce the ancient history and have matcha teatime outdoor!

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15/09/2024

🌕Traditionally, many enjoy moon viewing in autumn because the air is so fresh and clean in this season.

We like celebrating this custom with displays of Dango (🍡dumpling), as the round shape resembles the moon. Once finish viewing it as a beautiful decoration, we would make this a Mitarashi Dango (dumplings with soy-sauce paste) and enjoy it with matcha in a tea bowl, typically designed with autumn foliage imagery, in the tearoom.

As the custom has been around for over 1000 years, this season always brings us such a nostalgic feeling as we imagine people doing the same in the old days.

10/09/2024

26/06/2024

June 30th is the "Nagoshi no Harae” event, a custom originated from Kyoto symbolizing purification and renewal.

We eat "Minazuki" (水無月), a traditional sweet made of mochi and red beans, to purify any bad luck accumulated from the first 6 months of the year. The red color from red beans has been believed to ward off evil, and the triangular design is based on the shape of ice block cut-outs stored in ice hut in the old days.

In Chado, we also adapt the same and enjoy Minazuki in tearoom.
Feel the passing of seasons, showing gratitude on living healthy and well, and hoping for others the same for rest of the year.

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05/06/2024

June in Japan is known as rainy season.
Not to be upset by it, we celebrate the rain instead of missing sunny days as we understand water plays a prominent role in our life, and also in Chado.

Since ancient times, it is of utmost importance to offer clear and clean water for tea gatherings because it enhances the flavor of matcha tea. There is a famous spot on a bridge in Uji, Kyoto, where this precious water can be sourced. An annual memorial festival is held there, to honor Rikyu and others that established the matcha tea ritual, Chado.

Following Rikyu's custom, tea practitioner selects a special water container with respectful ornament on it when such precious water is used in the ceremony: a gentle, beautiful way to reminds us how important water is in our life.

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