Page 75 - @ccess 2 Reader´s Book
P. 75
The leader must not forget to request that the host give
him the privilege of examining the tea bowl closely. It is
usually scrutinized and turned upside down for closer
inspection. When the bowl comes to the last guest, he
takes it to the leader, who then returns it to the host. In a
similar way, the caddy and spoon are examined by each
guest. All these treasures furnish inexhaustible topics of
conversation and absorb the participants in questions of
art and history. It is in this rare atmosphere of congeniality
that the thick tea is served.
When the bowl, caddy and spoon are returned to
the host in the prescribed fashion, the Cha-no-yu
entertainment is over, properly speaking. Usucha, or
thin tea, is usually served more informally in the same
6
small room. Each person drinks his own bowl of usucha.
This gives an excellent opportunity to chat more freely,
and also enables other members of the host's family
to mingle with the guests, which is impossible until the
thick tea course is over.
indulge
(v.): disfrutar,
When the party breaks up and the guests involucrase
are gone, the serious-minded host returns to
the tea room and sits alone in front of the kettle, which
is now his sole companion. Indulging in philosophic
meditation, he listens "to the wind in the pines", as
the music of the boiling water heard in this quiet
environment is poetically called.
Adapted from: http://goo.gl/fvyQiE
6 Not as pasty as koicha, but stronger because of the different quality of tea used.
74 Reader's Book