About
Carry water, chop wood.
In 1191, the zen monk Eisai brought back from China the first Camellia Sinensis seeds to be planted in Japanese soil and with them, the seeds of the Japanese tea tradition. As in China, tea at that time was known more as medicine than a leisurely beverage.
Although compressed tea was banned in China in 1391, the practice of mixing powdered green tea into hot water flourished in Japan, evolving over time into the ritual practice known as Chanoyu or "hot water for tea".
It was not until the 15th century that the method of shading tea plants in the final days before harvest was developed. This technique sends the plant's caffeine and L-theanine production into overdrive, producing the rich, savory, and super-green leaf that we know today.
Image: Myōan Eisai - Rinzai Zen Master 1141-1215
First you boil water...
The most influential person in the history of Japanese tea was undoubtedly Sen no Rikyu, tea master and advisor to the powerful warlord Hideoyoshi Toyotomi. Rikyu embraced a different vision of tea practice than many of his predecessors. He preferred modest tea utensils and four-and-a-half mat tea huts to fine Chinese porcelain and golden pavilions, eschewing the lavish tea parties that sprang up amongst the samurai class and aristocracy during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Nowhere is Rikyu's influence more evident than in the development of Raku tea bowls—simple black chawan commissioned by Rikyu from a Korean-born tile maker named Chojiro. Sixteen generations later, the Raku family continues to redefine the art of the tea bowl with sober colors and organic forms, masters of the art of wabi-sabi.
Image: Raku chawan by Raku Jikinyu, fifteenth head of the Raku family
One time, one place.
Many hundreds of years after the first tea seeds left China, matcha has at last made its way to the West. Its popularity in recent years can be attributed not only to western consumers seeking a healthier alternative to the productivity-driving fuel of coffee, but to the very human need for slow and thoughtful rituals in a culture stripped of its history, community, and time for rest.
Though the connection may seem invisible to most, anyone who prepares a pot of savory sencha for a guest or picks up a chasen to whisk up a bowl of matcha is participating in a centuries old tradition.
That's the goal of House of Leaves, to give you all the tools you need to make your tea ritual a unique daily event where you can simply sit and let the products of nature enrich your life. When you carefully lift your favorite tea to your lips and inhale its savory aroma, take a moment to pay special attention to the unique time and place of your enjoyment and on the vast journey that put that tea in your cup.