THE WAY OF SENCHA SERVICE


The Sencha Service has been the core of arts and crafts of Japan and has become even the standard of human behavior.

The spiritual foundation of the Sencha service is Zen which taught that concentration of mind was more important than anything else and that direct communication with the inner nature of things was the way to arrive at the Truth.

The tea service is now a secular and social pastime, but the strong Zen influence is still very evident.

The service is very much concermed with rules and formalities. In this modern era of conveniemces where mechanization relieves man from, labor this fuss of making a cup of tea seems quite unnecessary. It can be said that the whole process of making tea is composed of gestures that follow a stylized patterm. The seemingly complicated manipulation of the various utensils and the formalities of tea service are the outcome of the inner feeling of reverence and preciousness toward the g Beautylh. It is a ritual : an expression of man's consciousness of the g sublimeh.

Another element of the gestures is to bring one's mental state into a ghigher orderh. By calming the mind, these actions bring awareness of man's inner self. Objectively, they are the set manners and ethics prescribed for the attainment of gbeautyh.



Shudo Ogasawara
5th Generation Head Tea master of the Ogasawara Sencha Service School.


(If you wish to study the Sencha Service,pleace contact are to the following address:-
Mr.Shudo Ogasawara c/o Ogasawara Sencha Service School, 174 Higashiyama-cho, Ashiya-shi, (659), Hyogo-ken, JAPAN.)

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