茶湯

About this photo

This photo shows a woman in front of a tsukubai in a tea garden. It appears in Kyoto Meishocho (Album of Famous Places in Kyoto), published in 1907, and a photo of flower arrangement appears on the same page.

A tsukubai is a low stone basin for rinsing the hands before entering a tea room. The name comes from the fact that you crouch, or tsukubau, to use it. The basin is set at the center, with stones around it such as the maeishi (front stone), teshokuishi (stone for a hand lantern) and yuokeishi (stone for a bucket of warm water). It also serves as a threshold that helps guests shift their frame of mind on the way to the tea room.

With the Meiji Restoration, the tea ceremony lost the backing of daimyo and other patrons and went through hard times. When Kyoto's first exposition was held in 1872 (Meiji 5), Gengensai, the 11th head of the Urasenke school, devised ryurei, a way of making tea while seated on chairs, for guests coming from abroad. It was meant to let people who were not used to kneeling on the floor enjoy tea too, and it is still widely used at tea gatherings and in tourist settings today.

Glossary