Sunday, September 19

The latter tea gatherings were called unkyaki-chakai, and on such occasions low-grade tea was drunk and a communal bath taken. In the bathroom, small, decorated screens, flowers, vases and incense-holders were installed, and even in the tea-room itself two scrolls of calligraphy were hung up on the east and west walls, complemented by tastefully-arranged flowers and more screens.   
After the bath, tea was drunk, of which there were two types - one of them Uji tea. By way of fruit there were white melons and mountain peaches, accompanied by buckwheat-noodles. There is no trace here of the rich ostentation of the former tea competitions of the capital city. Pictorial decorations and flowers were chosen in accordance with personal taste, and rare tea utensils seem no longer to have been employed. It was a quite different spirit that ruled these gatherings.
-- Zen in the Art of the Tea Ceremony, Horst Hammitzsch, p32-33

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