Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Japanese Tea Has a Taste of “Nothingness”?

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Japanese Tea Has a Taste of “Nothingness”?

 

tumaranai_big.gifMy American friend R speaks Japanese very well, but is critical of Japanese culture and customs. He said, “When I visited Japan, someone gave me a gift, saying, ‘Here is something petty for you.’

How come he would give me something like that?” I replied, “That person was trying to make his position look lower than yours by purposely calling something nice ‘something petty.’ This is called modesty.” “It’s also called sarcasm,” he talked back. “Hummm, yeah.” “Anyway, another person served me green tea, saying, ‘We have nothing.’ If they had nothing, they wouldn’t have been able to give me anything.”

I didn’t know what to say. Well, in this kind of situation, I should bring up “Zen.” I explained, “In Japan, green tea has something to do with Zen Buddhism. You enjoy a cup of tea upon waking up. It means, ‘please enjoy the spiritual state of nothingness.’” “Isn’t that right?” he exclaimed.

I didn’t know if he really got it, but he seemed impressed very much. I just made up that explanation,
so I felt guilty....

Takumi Oka