Etiquette for Japan’s Dining Rooms

Table etiquette of 1895 had “elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow.” —A late 19th century collectible cigarette card, honoring “Flower Day” in Japan.

The Japanese Dining Room

In Japan the family never gathers around one table as the European or other Asian people do, but each person has his or her own separate small table, a foot square and a foot high, and always highly decorated. When they take their meals they kneel upon the mat, each taking his table before him. 

The little lacquered table generally contains a small porcelain bowl, heaped up with deliciously cooked rice, and several lacquered wooden bowls containing soup or meat, and numbers of little porcelain plates with fish, radishes and the like. 

The way of cooking of course is entirely different from the European. Two pretty chop sticks, made of lacquered bamboo or wood, silver or ivory, are used, instead of knife, fork and spoon, and all people use them with great skill. 

All foods are prepared in the kitchen, so as to avoid any trouble to use knife and fork. Soup is to be drunk from the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by hand, in the same way as people drink tea or coffee. 

Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid servant always waits, kneeling at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. 

Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of the meal, but sugar and cream never. — Placer Argus, 1895

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Chanoyu Etiquette – Japanese Tea

They were all society people, but they found that Japanese etiquette differed very materially from their own social functions. They studied the slips of paper given them until they knew that the bits of cake given them were to be eaten first, and the bowl of tea to be taken in the right hand and placed on the left palm and so held, no matter how warm the tea, until the first guest had sipped his tea in three gulps and a half when the rest of the company were at liberty to drink the steaming beverage, each bowl being drained in succession. The guests, meanwhile, watching each other with great interest to know what would be expected of them when their turn came. 

San Francisco, California – Do you know what a “chanoyu” is? Well, it is simply a Japanese ceremonial tea. The dainty little Geisha, Mme. Yucca and some members of the company, which, by-the-way, is the only real Japanese troupe ever in this country, who performed recently at the California theater, gave a chanoyu in the Maple room of the Palace Hotel that was a decidedly novel and interesting affair. The decorations were in keeping with the event, all Japanese, of course, with Japanese lanterns and richly embroidered screens which formed a back-ground to the tea-drinking room. The affair was invitational, and to each guest was presented little slips of paper describing etiquette of a Japanese ceremonial tea. 

They were all society people, but they found that Japanese etiquette differed very materially from their own social functions. They studied the slips of paper given them until they knew that the bits of cake given them were to be eaten first, and the bowl of tea to be taken in the right hand and placed on the left palm and so held, no matter how warm the tea, until the first guest had sipped his tea in three gulps and a half when the rest of the company were at liberty to drink the steaming beverage, each bowl being drained in succession. The guests, meanwhile, watching each other with great interest to know what would be expected of them when their turn came. 

Mme. Yucca brewed the tea with her own tiny hands on a raised dais, using a special blend, costing a fabulous sum per pound, and a tiny maid, Miss Otsuru by name, passed the refreshments, making a graceful and profound bow to each guest. One of the features of the evening was a geisha dance by Mme. Butterfly, 300 years old, the dance, not the dancer, bearing the ancient record. It was full of life and grace, combining all of the best movements of the Delsarte system. – Polly Larkin, 1899

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Japanese Spring Tea Ceremony

The springtime, Hanamatsuri, or “Flower Festival”— One of the key rituals practiced in spring is the tea ceremony, an ancient art that promotes appreciation of nature and beauty. 
-Photo source, Pinterest

The spring season in Japan is typically heralded by Hanamatsuri, or “Flower Festival,” and one of the key rituals practiced at this time of year is the tea ceremony, an ancient art that promotes appreciation of nature and beauty.

The tea ceremony, with its strict rules of etiquette, epitomizes the politeness that is a means of self-preservation in crowded Japan. Rules govern how to brew and serve the fine tea, how to hold and admire the tea bowls, and how the guest verbally responds to the server.

The goal of the ceremony is contentment in one’s lot and the teaching of the virtues of urbanity, respect, cleanliness and imperturbability, according to one published assessment.

More and more ceremonies are being conducted in the misono-dana style, in which participants sit in chairs rather than on their knees on tatami mats. Guests are traditionally served tea and small cakes, typical of those served at similar traditional celebrations in Japan.

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber , is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette of Japan’s Urasenke Tea

Although the tea ceremony originally was an art practiced only by upper class men, today tea schools have become girls’ finishing schools. “It is true that young people in Japan today lack knowledge in etiquette, but that is because there is so little opportunity to learn or use it in the home,” Yaeko Shiozuki, 1976

History of Japanese Etiquette in Tea Ceremony

Learning to serve or drink a cup ot tea takes months of instruction and embodies a history of Japanese etiquette, says Yaeko Shiozuki of Japan, a woman whose ancestors founded the tea ceremony. Shiozuki, 58, has 3000 tea ceremony students in Tokyo and has used her knowledge of this art and its philosophy to write seven books on manners and etiquette. The ceremony, dating back to the 15th century, enjoys a steady popularity among Japanese men and women of all ages, she said. Founded in Zen Buddhism and long practiced for its spiritual value, it is also a source of good manners in private Japanese life. The ritual includes the proper way to walk, turn around, sit, handle drinking and eating utensils, bow, and many other forms of behavior prescribed by the strict code of etiquette for polite society in the Orient. 

“It is true that young people in Japan today lack knowledge in etiquette, but that is because there is so little opportunity to learn or use it in the home,” said Mrs. Shiozuki as she relaxed in a rattan chair in the spacious, carpeted lobby to her tea ceremony school. “Today's parents grew up in the World War II years when there were few chances to learn this etiquette.” Mrs. Shiozuki, however, comes from an illustrious family whose ties to tradition have transcended wars and the coming of Western ways. Her father, Soshitsu Sen, is the 14th generation of the family that founded the Urasenke Tea Ceremony, the most prominent of various styles, with an estimated five million followers. Her brother, also taking the name Soshitsu Sen, now holds the venerable position that includes among its privileges performing the tea ceremony for visiting state guests. 

Mrs. Shiozuki's name became a household word with the publication in 1970 of her bestseller “A Guide to Ceremonies,” which gives step-by-step instructions for weddings, funerals and other formal occasions. Seated on traditional tatami or straw mats in a Tokyo tea room, officers of Japanese Self-Defense Forces hear lecture on manners from Mrs. Yaeko Shiozuki, whose ancestors founded the tea ceremony. Her other books tell how to give presents, write letters, wear kimonos, meet people, associate with relatives and behave in different areas of society. She also tells how to live in crowded apartment complexes without becoming angry or frustrated. Japanese manners have had to undergo substantial changes with the move from living in traditional straw-matted, or tatami, rooms to the beds, high tables and chairs of Western-style homes, Mrs. Shiozuki said. But she insists that the basics of modern etiquette must still be founded in the tea ceremony. 

“It teaches us how the hostess and guest can make each other feel as welcome as possible. It is more than just actions, but something deep down,” she explained. Although the tea ceremony originally was an art practiced only by upper class men, today tea schools have become girls’ finishing schools. Mrs. Shiozuki's grandfather began to admit women to tea classes during the Meiji era (1862-1912). Now women are 80 per cent of its followers. In the years of Japan's rapid Westernization the number of male students dropped greatly, but now it has begun to increase. “I think, there is a feeling of wanting to go back to the home town and do something the same way their ancestors did,” said Hiroo Masuda, a tea master in one of Mrs. Shiozuki's three schools. “After World War II Japan became too Americanized and threw away many of the old traditions.” There are about a thousand places to learn the tea ceremony in Tokyo alone, with enrollments averaging about 20 to 30 people. –By Kathryn Tolbert, Tokyo (AP), 1976

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

19th C. Japanese Etiquette

Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid-servant always waits, kneeling, at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of a meal, but sugar and cream never.

The Japanese Home:

The Dwellings and the Domestic Life of the Quaint People

If a man of taste should enter a Japanese parlor he would not fail to be surprised at the display of marvelous and exquisite taste. Yet I have often heard the sayings of foreigners that "the Japanese house has no furniture and is absolutely cheerless and empty." This is quite wrong. I must say that they have no taste of the Japanese art, for the men of taste are agreed in saying that the art of decoration in Japan is excellent. If anyone has some taste in this art, he will perceive that the hanging picture on the toko wall, elaborate arrangement of flowers, pictures on the framed partitions and all decoration, however trifling, reveal infinite taste.

The tastes of the Western people differ so much from ours that the decoration in the chambers seems almost childish to the Japanese eyes. The gorgeous display of colors in their rooms would please our children to look at. Drawingrooms piled up from corner to corner with toys, shells stones, dishes, spoons and different novel things always remind us of our curio-shops, a bunch of flowers is stuck in a vase without form and without order. The pictures in the rooms hang perpetually, though the face of nature and feeling of man chance from time to time. All these sights which we are accustomed to see in the European house excite in us nothing but wonder. Yet this is the taste of the Western people; we have no right to criticize it.

In Japan, the family never gathers around one table as the European or other Asiatic peoples do, but each person has his or her own separate small table, a foot square and a foot high, and always highly decorated. When they take their meals they kneel upon the mat, each taking his table before him. The little lacquered table generally contains a small porcelain bowl, heaped up with deliciously cooked rice, and several lacquered wooden bowls containing soup or meat, and numbers of little porcelain plates with fish, radishes and the like. The way of cooking, of course, is entirely different from the European. 

Two pretty chopsticks, made of lacquered bamboo or wood, silver or ivory, are used, instead of knife, fork and spoon, and all people use them with great skill. All foods are prepared in the kitchen so as to avoid any trouble to use knife and fork. Soup is to be drunk from the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by hand, in the same way as people drink tea or coffee. Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies and gentlemen must strictly follow. A maid-servant always waits, kneeling, at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lacquered tray, on which she receives and delivers the bowls for replenishing them. Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of a meal, but sugar and cream never. — Harper's Bazar, 1895

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Japanese High Tea Etiquette, Pt 2

Japanese High Tea — Part 2

An Elaborate Affair That is Often Very Costly

A Ceremony in Japan That is Hundreds of Yeard Old —Peculiar Forms That Are Inviolable—Strict Etiquette of a Japanese Festival—How the Host Acts

During the second part, a dinner is served and the tea made. With a little square of purple cloth the host wipes each utensil, then with the bamboo spoon, cha-shake, a little tea is taken out of the jar, cha-ore, and hot water-dipped from a highly embellished iron kettle with a dainty dipper and poured upon the tea in the bowl. This mixture is then whipped to a froth, and a boy carries it to the guests. 

It requires considerable practice to produce a froth quickly and without splashing; the instrument used is a whisk made of a piece of bamboo, split into shreds at one end until it resembles somewhat a paintbrush with a hollow center. 

The tea is light green in color and finely powdered, so that the bowl often looks very much like a sort of thick green cream. In the first part of the ceremony the tea is koicha, or very thick, and during the last part it is usu-cha, thinner. It costs from five dollars to six dollars a pound, and cannot be kept long. Very few Europeans can drink it without feeling very unhappy, for in the first place the taste is not agreeable, and then it is so intensely strong, that it is sure to disagree with them if they do manage to swallow it. 

The utensils used in the second part of the ceremony are carried in by the host, each separately and in the following order: 

1. An iron kettle on a stand. 

2. The daisu- A table of mulberry wood, about 2 feet high. 

3. Two cha-ire, or tea jars, in brocade covers. 
4. The mizasachi, or pot for fresh water, which is stood under a little table. 
5. The cha-sen, bamboo whisk; the fukusa, or little cloth; the cha-shaku, or caddy spoon, and lastly, the little wooden dipper, shaku. 

If there is only one guest the contents of the bowl should be swallowed in three gulps. After the guests have each drank, the empty bowl is passed from hand to hand to be admired. Then the host washes all the tea things and wipes them and the ceremony is ended. — Red Bluff Daily News, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Japan's High Tea Etiquette

The largest tea party in the world was given by Hideyoshi in the pine grove of Kitano. He issued an edict in which all the tea votaries in the empire were bidden to come to this grove, bringing with them any tea curios they might possess, and the prince promised to drink tea at every booth. All who failed to present themselves were forbidden ever to take part in the cha-no-yu again. 

Japanese High Tea — Part 1

An Elaborate Affair That is Often Very Costly

A Ceremony in Japan That is Hundreds of Years Old —Peculiar Forms That Are Inviolable—Strict Etiquette of a Japanese Festival—How the Host Acts

To invite a few friends to "come and drink a cup of tea" is by no means a simple matter among the Japanese. Such an invitation necessitates a room built especially for these occasions, a whole paraphernalia of costly utensils and a most elaborate ceremonial. 

The famous American "high tea,” with its hot cakes, chickens, ham, pies, custards and jams, bears no comparison in point of extravagant preparation. Shoguns and nobles ruined themselves giving tea parties. Warriors and knights forgot their high vocation and princes abdicated their thrones that they might devote themselves to daily tea ceremonies, which grew more and more costly until immense sums were spent and great fortunes dissipated upon these entertainments. 

The cha-no-yu ceremonies are 600 or 700 years old, and have passed through three distinct stages. The largest tea party in the world was given by Hideyoshi in the pine grove of Kitano. He issued an edict in which all the tea votaries in the empire were bidden to come to this grove, bringing with them any tea curios they might possess, and the prince promised to drink tea at every booth. All who failed to present themselves were forbidden ever to take part in the cha-no-yu again. 

This grand entertainment at which noblemen and peasants alike were welcome, lasted ten days and was a great success. The edict itself is still in existence. But dissensions arose among the members of the tea cult, and one party thought the ceremonies should be performed in such a manner, and another party considered their own particular method the proper one, so Hideyoshi called all the various schools to his castle of Iruchini, and under him Sen-uo-Rykyn gathered together,simplified and arranged the rules, and it is these rules which govern the cha-no-yu today. 

Its principal characteristic is a must elaborate and affected simplicity. The various utensils are frequently of plain Corean ware, but of enormous value, for their antiquity is great. Tbe room is as plain as possible, though often of very expensive and valuable woods. The invitations are usually either for noon or 6 o'clock p.m. 

There are two distinct modes, one for summer and the other for winter. In the cold season, the garden is thickly strewed with pine needles, which give forth a pleasant aromatic perfume. The visitors retain their geta, or outside footgear, and the tea is made over a square fireplace built in the floor. In summer the garden is gay with flowers and curiously twisted little dwarf trees. In this mode the visitors remove their geta and a portable brazier is used.

The guests do not come directly to the house —there would be an abruptness about such a proceeding, not at all consistent with the solemnity of the occasion — but go to a pavilion, machia-ai, in the midst of the garden, and wait till all are assembled. Then the principal guest strikes the wooden tablet or bell to announce their arrival. Generally the host has been awaiting this summons and appears immediately, but sometimes a servant answers it instead. 

The entrance to the tearoom is curious enough—it is simply a square hole three feel each way. The guests creep in one after another, in order of precedence, and after them the host, who in the mean time has knelt beside the entrance until the last visitor has gone in. The guests then seat themselves in a semi-circle, and the host approaches the door of the side room where the utensils are kept and says “I rejoice that you have condescended to come and thank you for it I will now make up the fires.” 

All the gestures and speeches are always the same and are never left to the discretion of the participants. The folding of the hands, whether the right shall be clasped on top, or be left open, is settled by strict etiquette. The host brings in the sumitori, or charcoal basket, each piece of a certain length and of camellia wood, a mitsu-ba brush of three feathers, a pair of tongs like great iron chopsticks, the kettle stand, iron handles for the kettle, a lacquer box containing incense and some little rolls of paper. 

If it is summer the incense box should be of earthenware. He next brings a vessel for ashes and a little spoon shaped shovel to remove them. The charcoal is lighted and incense burned to destroy tbe smell of the fumes. In stereotyped phrases the guests ask permission to examine the incense box, which is always a curio, or at least has some historical interest attached to it. Each visitor receives it in turn, and the last one returns it to the host, who meanwhile dilates upon its antiquity or its historic origin. The first part of the ceremony is now over and the visitors and the host retire to the garden. —The Red Bluff Daily News, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia