Hokani Life: Left Foot, Left Foot, Left Foot, Right? (Hantai)

Welcome back to stir-fried tango.

So if you were expecting a follow up on the "Traveling Pains" or "A Broad Side" series… you will be waiting a few more days. This is because I'm a horrible human-being, intent on drawing out the awesome drama and torturing you with the story you want

Evil gasp now that you realize my terrible plan

As today is Hump day, know to you poor victims as Wed-nes-day you will be receiving the wrath of my new series

HOKANI LIFE!!

This is where I will be talking about things in my life

Why call it "Hokani Life"? Well because hokani means other… You wanted a more detailed explanation? Well I am an "other" person… Maybe that doesn't translate like I think it does… oh well

So today I have I fun topic… well fun to me

I will be talking briefly about the Japanese tea ceremony or Sadou ( I don't think it is possible to talk on it briefly.) So Sadou is actually really awesome and complicated and I still can't do it right yet. When I get better and think I can do it with only screwing up like 5 or less times I may show you. For now I'll just stick to talking about it and showing you that stuff.

This time I'll just focus on the various different things you need in Sadou.

What things could be involved in making tea? Ha! If you thought it was that simple, expect a big surprise. In the Sadou club I'm in, even some of the students that have been there since freshmen and are now graduating, yes even those veterans are still messing it up. So how is this so hard? Well the problem lies in the details… no really there are just that many details. You have to bring all of the tea serving objects into the room a certain way, open the door a certain way, turn when you are in the room a certain way, make the tea a certain way, serve it a certain way, clean up a certain way, and take everything back out of the room a certain way. Sound complicated? I'm just getting started. It's not just how you do it, the way you move step and clean your various utensils is very specific. There is not a thing you can do that even lets room for creative ways to do it. Most of my time in class is spent hearing the teacher tell me that I'm using the wrong foot when stepping or turning the wrong direction instead of the intuitive one. I feel as if I'm being pulled into a Dr. Seuss book every time I hear the teacher yell "left foot, left foot, left foot" as I move the right, where upon she replies with "hantai" meaning "opposite." I probably spend most of my time confused.

There is one thing that I am starting to get right finally. It’s the names of the various tools used in Sadou. (key word "starting")

Brace yourselves here come a bunch of pictures… no I mean a bunch… and this is just the stuff I have to take pictures of… there is more.

So let's start with the basics. Serving.

To serve tea you need several things. First is the obvious. You need something to drink it out of so first is the Chawan

[picture of chawan (circled bowl)]

But wait, what if when you are serving it you spill a few drips while carrying it. Well then you use a Kobukusa or Dashibukusa

[picture of dashibukusa (circled red cloth)]

But wait there's more. After you are done drinking you need a way to clean your sip drip (you know the residue you leave from drinking from a bowl, that looks like it may hit the table) that’s where Kashi come in.

[picture of kashi (circled white napkins)]

But why do I have this folded napkin looking thing in the first place? Oh well that’s because it was what you ate your snacks with. You know the snacks they carried in the room in the Kashi bowl (it has a special name that I forgot)

The same Kashi bowl that came with those special Hashi (chopsticks) called Kuromoji that you used to put it on your Kashi. You put it on your Kashi right before you cut it with your Youji secretly hidden in the stack of Kashi.

[picture of youji (circled sheath and little blade)]

Where were you keeping that stack of Kashi with the hidden Youji in the first place? Well in your Kashi wallet (probably has a real name, but I don't know) that you had sitting next to you.

[picture of kashi wallet]

Inside there is also a Fukusa

[picture of fukusa (circled silk scarves)]

What is the Fukusa for? Well when you are making the tea you use it to clean several things like the Natsume which is for holding the powdered tea before you prepare it.

And the Chashaku which is for scooping the tea out of the Natsume.

[picture of chashaku (circled stick thing)]

You also use the Fukusa for taking the lid off of the Kama or Chanoyugama which is a pot of hot water….. No picture of this… I don’t have one because they are super expensive, but just search the name on google and one will come up. When I'm practicing I just use a pot of boiled water. Although I may have said the Fukusa is for taking the lid off of the pot it actually varies from one form of Sadou to the other. In the version I do, men do not use it to take the lid off, but women do. I hear it is reversed in the other form.

Hey I finally hit a stopping point…. Breathe

Ok so I may have hit Half? A third? A quarter? Somewhere around there on parts for doing Sadou. I'll try and get the rest next time, and maybe explain a little more on Sadou.

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