Fuden-an: Leaves from a Tea-journal

　　All too quickly, we have once more reached that season at which it becomes natural to look back and reflect on the events of the year about to end. This one has been for me that of my own [Chinese] astrological birth sign , and thus is a personal turning-point. At the start of the year I wrote the following 31-syllabic classical poem:

　　　　　　　to a world in which
　　　　　　　time upon time we humans
　　　　　　　strive to surmount barriers,
　　　　　　　may it lead to happiness -
　　　　　　　the path of Tea for this day

　　But I now find myself daily confronted by the self-critical task of asking whether this year I have actually lived up to the aspiration that I thus expressed.

　　I feel there can rarely have been previous year in which the lifestyles and very livings of the Japanese nation were so threatened, by one natural disaster after another. As I have wondered previously in the pages of this journal, have not these things been sent to us as divine warnings, concerning the damage that we humans have year in year out inflicted upon nature and the enivironment? Or, rather, have they not been dealt to us as divine punishments?

　　Whichever be the case, I should like to express my most respectful sympathy for, and deepest condolences to, all those that have been made victims of these catastrophes, and to offer what encouragement I may to those whose lives, at least, were happily not lost. I very much doubt whether I myself, spared in all of these events, am capable of truly understanding the pains and hardships now being undergone by those forced to start their lives all over again, from scratch; but I most earnestly hope that all of those persons will find themselves capable of efforts that will extend even as far as accomplishing what those whose lives have unhappily been lost can now no longer themselves do.

　　To another matter. At the National Festival of Culture, held this year in Fukuoka, the contribution from the Fukuoka branch of our School was distinguished by something towards which both that branch and we ourselves had long been striving: the opening of the world's first platinum[-gilt] Tea reception-room . The same branch had marked their hosting of the first National Convention of our school of the new millennium by creating a golden reception-room; and this new plan was, as it were, a sequel to that achievement.

　　The initial suggestion, made to me by the Branch Head, Hasegawa Soyu, had been that the room should contrast with the gilded room by being faced with silver-leaf. Well aware that silver cannot but tarnish with the passage of time, I ventured to suggest instead that, if the Branch was indeed determined on this project, platinum-leaf would, though far more costly, in the long run prove an investment with results of permanent beauty. And this suggestion was consequently adopted.

　　The branch's golden reception-room is of square, four-and-a-half mat shape, and has a lattice-worked ceiling. So it was my wish that the new room should contrast with this, by including a three-quarter-mat recessed serving-area . And yet, were the room simply to be merely one of less than four-and-a-half mats, the noble effect of using platinum-leaf would be diminished, and so it was my desire that the structure should also include a built-in window-desk , and further have a gently-arching ceiling.

　　The unusual combination of [formal] window-reading-desk with a[n informal] room of less than four-and-a-half mats was experimented with by our Founder, Lord Enshu, in the Mitsu-an Reception-room, which is now a National Treasure; this mingles the inherent intimacy of a small room with something of the elegance of the shoin format, and thus symbolizes architecturally his own constant emphasis on the harmonious synthesis of the apparently-disparate. And experimenting once more with this combination was, for my own part, an attempt to re-embody the essential spirit of kirei-sabi - the austere elegance that is the guiding principle of Enshu Tea.

　　A curving ceiling is a feature found in no example of Tea-architecture still extant; and I am quite prepared to discover that opinions as to its success will vary quite sharply. But - given that gold suggests the sun and its light - I had wanted this new room contrastingly to suggest the silver of moonlight, and of the universe of stars beyond that planet; and thus wanted to imbue even so small a space with a suggestion of loftiness.

　　Of course, the utensils to be used in such a room must match it; and so - to mention just one, representative piece - I chose as water-vessel one fired for me in the new Milky-Way glaze that I have adopted this year as one of my approved choices as Grand Master. Indeed, this novel glaze was something that I had envisioned having created for me, and then adopting, from the outset of the plan to construct this room. And, hoping to express a myriad of aspirations in one short title, I have named the room "Ri-an" . I desire to have in the near future the opportunity of displaying this room to as many of my individual readers as possible.

　　Finally, I should like to express my humble gratitude to those that have bestowed attention upon this journal during the year past.