Fuden-an: Leaves from a Tea-journal

　　Together, we have all embarked upon a new year. Each of my readers will have spent the New Year's holiday in her or his own way; but, as is also reflected in this year's Imperial Theme , my strongest prayer is for the happiness of every one of you.

　　This year's first three days were, in Japan, marked by extremely temperate weather. As has for centuries been the custom in our own household, the Tea-meet For The Passage Into A New Year was smoothly followed by the Midnight Offering Of Tea (to the souls of our Founder and his successors), and then, after a recitation of Buddhist scripture, the sharing of Tea of Felicity.

　　I myself found myself able to conduct the burying of the last charcoal embers of the Old Year in the ash of the hearth, and then the use of those very embers to ignite the first addition of charcoal of the New Year, in the best condition I have yet experienced since succeeding to the Grand Mastership upon my father's retirement from that position. In addition, the promising swelling of the bud of akebono camellia that I had long planned to place in a green bamboo receptacle of my own fashioning did after all fully assuage the many fears I had felt during the end of the previous year - fears that that that bud might remain disobligingly tight. Thus, on all these counts, my own New Year was passed in content, and with some satisfaction.

　　Moreover, I feel that I have received a huge whelm of energy, upon which to draw in dealing with the year to come, from the many guests that were so good as to attend the series of First Tea Occasions that have likewise long been a family tradition. And further object of intense personal gratitude is that both my father and my mother have entered this new year in states of sound health.

　　Such feelings aside, for the tokonoma for the series of First Tea Occasions that I have mentioned above, I chose a Zen vertical hanging-scroll, brushed by the a hundred and fifty-third Zen patriarch of the Daitoku Temple (Rinzai Sect) in Kyoto, Takuan Soho , that reads (in Chinese) It is only from a really high peak that one can gain the most splendid of views; yet do not therefore desist from moving forward merely because the view from where you now are is favorable. It has long been our family practice to choose, for our First Tea Occasions, not hanging scrolls that merely reflect the season, or represent feelings of auspiciousness, but rather those that express the spiritual goal that one has espoused for the year now entered upon.

　　Patriarch Takuan was a monk of the Daitoku Temple that maintained most cordial relations with Lord Enshu, our founder, and constituted a spiritual guide for whom Lord Enshu entertained the most profound respect. Both persons gained deep esteem from the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu , who found them both a source of support, as did they him; and there have survived many letters addressed by Lord Enshu to Patriarch Takuan, attesting to the depth of the sender's admiration for their addressee. Indeed, for the hanging scroll for our family's Tea-meet For The Passage Into A New Year, I chose a letter from Lord Enshu to Patriarch Takuan; and so I subsequently selected, for our series of First Tea Occasions, a scroll that bore a deep relation to its predecessor in the tokonoma of our Tea-hut. And, among the many things that that letter proved to contain, concerning the leaving of a year now drawing to its close, there was to be found the following 31-syllable poem in the classical style, which expresses rueful delight, that both writer and reader should still be alive, and very likely to live much longer:

　　　　　　　　　It is far too late
　　　　　　　for us to start regretting that
　　　　　　　we'll have to leave this life,
　　　　　　　now at the end of both this year
　　　　　　　and our spans of life, already overlong

　　And finally, during this year we are all of us likely to encounter no few new difficulties; and of course it is our wish to force our way through the barriers presented by such trials. But, should we manage this, surely we should not then allow ourselves to lapse into easy idleness, but should forge on, towards the goals proper to each of us. And, in choosing the Takuan hanging-scroll mentioned above, that was the spiritual goal that I hoped to share with my guests - and, here, with my readers, too.