matcha

[Geekgirl]

Love that page! My matcha is looking more and more like the "good" foam than the "bad" bubbles. Yay! It is certainly an art form. My favorite part was this:

"　Why the bowl was turned?
　At formal ceremony, the bowl will be served on your front to face of the bowl.
Any pictures or good looking part is face of the bowl! Then we just avoid that part. Some people who do not know that, turn and turn, then they do a round and drink from the face. It is nonsense!"

teehee! So I will quit drinking from the face.

[chamekke]

Love that page! My matcha is looking more and more like the "good" foam than the "bad" bubbles. Yay! It is certainly an art form. My favorite part was this:

"　Why the bowl was turned?
　At formal ceremony, the bowl will be served on your front to face of the bowl.
Any pictures or good looking part is face of the bowl! Then we just avoid that part. Some people who do not know that, turn and turn, then they do a round and drink from the face. It is nonsense!"

teehee! So I will quit drinking from the face.

Well, that's just a tea ceremony convention - the guest does that as an expression of humility. You can do whatever you like at home.

The really funny thing is that a lot of chawan-s have designs on the reverse side, and/or on the inside just opposite where you drink (once the bowl is turned), so that you have a gorgeous visual element to admire while drinking even though you've turned the bowl away. It slightly violates the original purpose of the gesture, perhaps, but there's something unbelievably sweet about that "solution"

P.S. I've wondered whether originally there was a functional reason for turning away the front of the bowl, e.g. "I as guest don't want to risk scratching / grazing with my teeth / otherwise manhandling the precious design on the front or front-upper edge of the bowl". Maybe not.