It is the season when the tearoom is decorated with hydrangeas colors.
Hydrangeas bloom in the courtyard of my house, and they are cut as tea flowers in the morning. There are many blue-purple hydrangeas, but there are also round-bulging hydrangeas. As the Japanese kanji shows, it's a gentle purple flower with sunshine. It will moisturize our mind.
At the alcove where the hanging scroll is hung, there is a "hanging flower" using a basket today. The basket is the shape of a basket that a fisherman puts on his waist when he catches fish. Different from the hanging scroll, the flowers play a leading role, and it is simple, but has a strong presence. Usually, in the formal tea ceremony, during the first half of serving Japanese traditional meals (called Kaiseki), there is a hanging scroll at the alcove, and it is changed from hanging scroll to flowers at the second half of the thick tea service.
The tea utensil stand is a round wooden table, and the blue "mizusashi" (fresh-water container) is made of glass cutting foil so that you can feel the coolness.
The style of making tea is named “Arai-chakin” (wash chakin*). The chakin is set inside a shallow tea bowl filled with water and carried into the tearoom, then lifted out and folded in the standard manner before "chasen-toushi" (one of the procedures for tea whisk). The water in the tea bowl is put into “kensui” (waste-water receptacle) and tea is made. A flat tea bowl is called “batarai"(it looks like a horse tub). This is a special tea procedure for midsummer using water. The dry sweets are "Kumano Yahei grilled Ayu" (sweet fish).
*chakin : a white linen cloth used for wiping and purifying tea bowls.
Hydrangeas available in baskets and flower vase are also lovely. (Bottom of photo)
The last photo is a hydrangea in the courtyard, and the name is "Sumida fireworks". Flowers are like fireworks on Sumida River, "whizzing, boom~! “
Fireworks will soon rise in the summer night sky.
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