Asha Longsworth
Staff Writer
On Sunday, the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona hosted a tea ceremony and whisking workshop.
In Japanese, temae is known as the meditative process of preparing tea. The workshop focused on Chanoyu – the ritual of preparing powdered green tea, known as matcha.
“There’s a big difference between grabbing a matcha latte from Starbucks in a plastic cup, drinking it in a hurry, then throwing the cup away,” Rebecca Corbett, Japanese studies librarian at the University of Southern California, said. “There’s that and (there’s) sitting in a tea room space, focusing on the host’s effort, (using) ceramic tea bowls and being present in the moment.”
According to the matcha history provided at the workshop by Corbett, matcha was first introduced to Japan in the 13th century, and in the late 16th century the cultural and artistic practice of Chanoyu was developed.
“Starbucks put matcha permanently on their North American menu in 2019,” Corbett said. “At the moment in Japan you see just as much commodification…I do ask that people be mindful of the years of cultural practice that people dedicate their lives to studying.”
Both event leaders and tea practitioners Rebecca Corbett and Michelle Liu Carriger became students at the Urasenke School of Tea in 1999. Liu Carriger studied in Los Angeles and Corbett studied in Kyoto, Japan.
“I was a student at Pepperdine University, which had a Japanese way of tea program, and there were nine classes,” said Liu Carriger, associate professor of theater and performance at the University of California Los Angeles. “I was like ‘how can you take nine semesters of tea?’ I think I took seven.”
The “Tōgei: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics” exhibition at AMOCA highlights the relationship between the study of tea and ceramics.
“I taught ceramics for 20 years, and every ceramicist probably gets into studying tea,” said Julianna Balgh, a retired professor of ceramics. “I researched it and became fascinated, so I donated 100 tea bowls for my classes every semester and did ceremonies.”
Temae varies in formality depending on the number of guests, season and occasion. In the AMOCA ceremony, Corbett narrated the ceremony while the host, Damian Pytlik, greets and indicates to the guest, Liu Carriger, that he will begin the tea making procedure by offering her a sweet snack to prepare her palette for the bitterness of the matcha.
“The host will start by opening up and purifying all the tea utensils,” Corbett said. “It should be calming, as if you’re entering a meditative state, for the host and guests.”
Once the utensils are cleansed, the host communicates to the guest that it is the appropriate time to eat the sweet snack, as the matcha is being prepared.
“Once the powder is scooped into the ceramic bowl, hot water is added and the host whisks the matcha powder back and forth,” Corbett said. “Some people do it in a circle, at our school we are taught to whisk it this way.”
After the matcha is properly prepared, the host turns the bowl to the shōmen, or front, so that it is presented to the guest in an aesthetically pleasing way. The guest thanks the host, drinks the matcha, then can intentionally examine the tea bowl to show gratitude.
Once the demonstration of the chanoyu was completed, guests paired up and had their own ceremonies with one another.
“I really appreciated holding the bowl,” J.L Aronson, Zen Buddhist and student of tea at the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Center in Toronto, said. “We can see the artwork [in this exhibit] but we can’t touch any of it, but I got to hold it and drink from it.”
According to the Tōgei exhibition, the Japanese tea ceremony is an art form involving tea utensils, calligraphy and architecture. Everything is designed and orchestrated with intentionality.
“We have a consumption based culture of matcha that’s about the individual and self gratification,” Corbett said. “Versus matcha culture that is about aesthetics, crafts and relationships between people and objects – those are two separate things.”
For more information on the Tōgei exhibition, visit amoca.org.
For more information on tea workshops and events hosted by Liu Carriger and Corbett’s tea group, visit glendaleteahouse.org.
Asha Longsworth can be reached at asha.longsworth@laverne.edu.
Correction
A previous version of this story contained two errors. Damian Pytlik was misidentified as Damian Carriger, and Michelle Liu Carriger teaches at the University of California Los Angeles, not at the University of Southern California. The Campus Times regrets the errors.
Asha Longsworth is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations, and a staff writer for the Campus Times.
