| The Origin of Tea Legend | | | | The first tea seeds were brought to Japan by the |
| The tea story begins in China around 5,000 years | | | | Buddhist priest Yeisei, who had seen the value of tea |
| ago. Legend has it that the emperor Shen Nung was | | | | in China in enhancing religious mediation. As a result, |
| a scientist and lover of the arts. One of his | | | | he is known as the "Father of Tea" in Japan. Because |
| proclamations required that all drinking water be boiled | | | | of this partnership, tea in Japan has always been |
| as a hygienic precaution. One day while visiting in the | | | | associated with Zen Buddhism. |
| countryside of his far-reaching realm, he and the | | | | Tea was heightened to an art form resulting in the |
| court stopped to rest. In accordance with his law, | | | | creation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Cha-no-yu. |
| the servants began to boil water for the court to | | | | Irish-Greek journalist and historian Lafcadio Hearn |
| drink. Dried leaves from a bush fell into the boiling | | | | described this ceremony: "The Tea ceremony |
| water, and a brown liquid was infused into the water. | | | | requires years of training and practice to graduate in |
| As a scientist, the emperor became intrigued by the | | | | art...yet the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies |
| liquid, drank some, and found it very appetizing. The | | | | no more than the making and serving of a cup of |
| bush happened to be a tea plant and this is how tea | | | | tea. The supremely important matter is that the act |
| was created. | | | | be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most |
| The Chinese | | | | graceful, most charming manner possible". |
| After the creation of tea, consumption spread | | | | As more people became involved in the excitement |
| throughout the Chinese culture. In 800 A.D. Lu Yu | | | | surrounding tea, the purity of the original Zen |
| wrote the first book on tea, the Ch'a Ching. Utilizing | | | | concept was lost. The tea ceremony became |
| his vast memory of observed events and places, he | | | | corrupted, excessive and very elaborate. Three great |
| classified the differing methods of tea cultivation and | | | | Zen priests restored tea to its original place in |
| preparation in ancient China. His work was so explicit | | | | Japanese society: Ikkyu, a prince who became a |
| and complete that it projected him into near | | | | priest and was successful in guiding the nobles away |
| sainthood within his own lifetime. Supported by the | | | | from their corruption of the tea ceremony, Murata |
| emperor himself, his work clearly showed the Zen | | | | Shuko, the student of Ikkyu and very influential in |
| Buddhist philosophy to which he was exposed as a | | | | reintroducing the Tea ceremony into Japanese |
| child. It was this form of tea service that Zen | | | | society and Sen-no Rikkyu, a priest who set the rigid |
| Buddhist missionaries would later introduce to imperial | | | | standards for the ceremony, largely used intact |
| Japan. | | | | today. |
| The Japanese | | | | |