Next time you're in a tea gathering, imagine that osaki-ni is coming from one of those rambunctious arhats! But which one? There are many from which to chose!
Perhaps your otemae chodai itashimasu is directed toward a venerable immortal!
The exhibition "Buddhist Ceremonial Tea" which ends a dual installation run December 3 at Urasenke's Chado Research Center, will help you truly conjure up the power of camelia sinensis through time and space. On view are many mandalas, diagrams for ritual altars, dogu from by-gone eras that venerated ocha in its rightful place -- the traditional Chinese pharmacopoeia -- for its medicinal as well as, perhaps, magical properties. No wonder that many of these objects are National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.
Thanks to Gretchen Mittwer for translating the exhibition introduction (Japanese only) that was placed on the gallery foyer presented here for your (and my!) edification. We need more of these hand-outs and Romanized transliterations if not also translations of objects on display in Kyoto museums.
In addition to items from the Konnichian Library and Chado Research Center, lenders to the exhibition include Saikyo-ji, Honkoku-ji, Shomyo-ji (Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa-Bunko Museum), Rozan-ji, Sanzen-in, Daigo-ji, Kakakura-ji of Hohaku-in, Ryosoku-in, Daitoku-ji, Tofuku-ji, Ryosoku-in, Sennyu-ji, Hasadera Noman-in, and Hogon-ji temples; Kitano Tenmangu shrine, National Museums of Tokyo, Nara and Kyoto; Kyoto and Ritsumeikan (Fujii Eikan Bunko Collection) universities; as well as Sakyo Ward Kuta Region Self-Gov. Promotion Assn., Kyoto Institute Library and Archives; and Nezu and Seikado Bunko Art museums.
