The Tea Gathering and Ying-Yang Five Lines

There are various purposes for practicing in the tea ceremony, one of which is "to be able to do formal tea gathering alone". The widely known tea ceremony is like cutting out a part of the formal tea gathering, and the daily practice is also a part of the formal tea gathering.

The formal tea gathering is divided into three parts: the first seating "SHOIRI" (初入り), the break time called "NAKADACHI" (中立ち), and the final seating "GOIRI" (後入り).

In this, it is often said that the SHOIRI is the Ying seat and the GOIRI is the Yang seat, and the composition of the formal tea gathering is also deeply based on the idea of the Ying-Yang Five Elements. From the idea that yin and yang repeat relative divisions among them, first of all, it can be roughly divided into SUMIDEMAE (炭手前) which is one of the procedures for laying of the charcoal to boil water and KAISEKI (懐石) mealtime. SUMIDEMAE is an action to make the fire flourish, so is seen as ‛Yang'. KAISEKI is an action that takes in what is appearing into the body and becomes ‘Yin’. Actually, it can be divided into yin and yang in each of the charcoal front itself and the kaiseki itself.

Next, about GOIRI this is also roughly divided into thick tea "KOICHA" (濃茶) which is the yin and thin tea "USUCHA" (薄茶) which is the yang. Heavy ones are yin and light ones are yang. You can find various relativity by looking at what is hidden as yin, what is appearing as yang...so on, so you can find various relativity of Ying-Yang Five Lines in the formal tea gathering. The part of thick tea and thin tea starts from the scene of having sweets, The sweets for thick tea, which is yin, are served in the yin seat (first seat), the sweets for thin tea in the yang are served in the yang seat (final seat), and the confectionery for thick tea = yin is namagashi (wet = yin), and the confectionery for thin tea = yang is dried confectionery (dry = yang). This is also one of the manifestations of yin and yang.