What are the stages of Chinese tea ceremony?
There are several schools of Sado, or tea ceremony. That sentence alone should warn off anyone who thinks this art form is in any way related to plopping an Earl Grey teabag into a cup of boiling water. Tea, and in this case, O-cha (green tea), is as integral to culture in Japan as coffee is in the US (more so, in fact) or ‘a cuppa’ is in the UK. Also, its health benefits are widely touted and generally accepted worldwide. And study of the tea ceremony is still considered part of the ‘proper’ education of any aspiring young ‘lady’. All these factors ensure that this ancient art form thrives even in modern-day Japan. Sen no Rikyu The Shokintei teahouse The earliest rituals involving tea came to Japan as a part of Buddhist meditation in the 6th century. Later, in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), a Japanese priest named Eisai introduced tea seeds which became the source of much of the tea grown in Japan today. A century later the priest Eizon and the monk Ikkyu further promoted the tea ce
