秋叶茶道 The longing for the japanese autumn tea ceremony

Soon it´s time to be with my dear lady master in japanese tea ceremony, Eiko Duke Soei Sensei. As I look forward to our next encounter this Friday and Saturday, I think about how wonderful she is ... such a sweet lady.

Our encounters are precious to me - which contains of lessons in japanese tea ceremony, wonderful conversation with her in between lessons, which is really great knowing a bit of  each other, and each others language and culture ... and what greater way of knowing japanese language and culture than doing it with a great lady from one of the oldest japanese tea ceremony world of Japan. I feel lucky.

On my last visit, she showed me a beautiful portable tea box, which is even for seasonal japanese tea ceremonies. As I look at outside the window now, I knew that one of my favorite if ever would be the autumn tea ceremony, when leaves turn to yellow, red and orange to announce the season.

I long to the day when I can perform this seasonal tea ceremony, when spreading those autumn colored leaves on the passage, roof and entrance of the teahouse is a part of the ceremony, as described in the book of Chanuyo of Ida Trotzig, just because they are such a natural beauty to look at.

.... and that´s why I deliberately leave them on the ground, even near our entrance door, even if it means extra sweeping indoor of those that happens to be blown in whenever one enters the house. They give such happiness to look at and walk on during autumn, which I think gives much strength enough through the winter later.

Anyway it is still a great travel for me, before I could be formally allowed to practice the autumn tea ceremony, but as the old teaching says - the journey towards our goal is as rewarding as the goal itself, and so I enjoy my time with my japanese lady teacher Soei Sensei, a wonderful Lady Tea Master I admire very much ... and so I enjoy the beautiful autumn every year like in the following pictures below ...

... for chadao ...

黄琼丝 /Celina Huang
Photo: En Kopp Zen Teahouse

Autumn in Upplands Bro, Stockholm 

Autumn in the pond created by the Säbyholm Private School in Upplands Bro, Stockholm