Tea in Kyoto

Back when I was thirteen, my family went to Europe for the first time. I still remember my excitement as we arrived in Salzburg. To a budding cellist like me who grew up on a steady diet of classical music, being in the same places and breathing the same air that Mozart had breathed was a magical experience.

After four years studying tea ceremony, our recent family vacation to the Kansai region (Kyoto and Osaka) had some of the same excitement. It was a much-needed break, but it was also an opportunity to visit historical sites related to tea ceremony! And also, it was a welcome opportunity to feast on good-for-you foods, since Kyoto is known for vegetables, pickles, and tofu. (I’m sorry to say that cooking is one of the many things that has gotten dropped around here lately…) Of course, we saw lots of other stuff too.

I was thinking of fangirling all over this blog post and dropping all sorts of names and such that most English-speaking readers have never heard of… but on second thought, maybe I’ll just do pictures. Read the captions if you are interested. Yay, Kyoto eye-candy!

Visiting the tea room at the Sen no Rikyu museum in Sakai!

The "nijiriguchi" door: can't bring a sword inside, because it won't fit. Everyone stoops to come inside; everyone is on the same level. Tea is all about reconciliation.

The site of Sen no Rikyu's home in Sakai, where he was born. 

We visited Kitano Tenmangu shrine to go to the flea market... and then I remembered afterwards that it was the site of Hideyoshi's massive chakai (tea party)! Also, the ume/plum trees were in full bloom; I remembered the "Tobiume" story that my tea ceremony teacher once told me; the hero of that story is said to be the god of this shrine. Yeah... as some of our friends from church say, Kyoto is so beautiful... conflicted feelings.

In the background is the garden and tea house built by Hosokawa Tadaoki, husband of Lady Gracia (a famous Catholic) and disciple/friend of Rikyu. It is called shokoken (松向軒), meaning "building facing pines." I planned the tea room in our house inspired by this one, so it was great to finally see the original!

The interior of 松向軒/Shokoken

The garden, appropriately with a pine tree

Before tea, guests wash their hands and mouth using something like this. I can't think of what we would call this in English... outdoor stone sink? This one in Hosokawa's garden was famous for being large.

This has nothing to do with tea, but Gion is very picturesque, even in the rain.

Yasaka pagoda at night. We stayed near here.

We wanted to climb all the way to the top of Mt. Inari, but... it got dark. The gates made interesting shadows.

Pickle buffet! Keith and I were thinking that this would be a good idea... and there it was! Very popular too; we had to wait about two hours to get in.

The buffet... I'm getting hungry again just looking at this picture.

I hadn't had enough pickles yet, so Mom and I had pickle-high-tea. Everything had pickles in it, even the desserts! This is also a great idea.

Plum blossoms at Nijo Palace, the Kyoto home of the Tokugawa family.

 And... if you want to see more pictures, there were over 700 of them. For once I took more pictures than Dad. ;)