Festival presents Japanese tradition and rituals

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of enthusiastic Jakartans flocked to the Japanese bon odori festival last weekend, making the venue, a five star hotel in Central Jakarta, more look like a family outing spot.

Beside the traditional bon odori dance and several other traditional dances, the event at the Jakarta Hilton International also featured numerous activities, like games, art exhibitions and the country's ancient tea drinking ritual chanoyu and the mochi-tsuki tradition.

The tea drinking ritual was introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks from China. It was adopted by Japanese Buddhist monks and became a daily tea ritual in the monastery in the 15th century.

It was tea master Senno Rikyu who, based on the Zen tradition, established the four guiding principles of chanoyu: wa (harmony), kei (respect), sei (purity), and jaku (tranquility) and these principles are represented at various stages in the tea ceremony and are still practiced today.

From the monastery, the popularity of chanoyu later spread among Japanese noblemen, samurai and the public in general who latter adopted the tea ceremony to honor their guests.

During the bon odori festival, the tea ceremony commenced with the appearance of the host, bringing along with her the chawan (tea bowl) with chasen (the bamboo tea whisk), a cloth for wiping the tea bowl and chashaku (or tea scoop).

While the guests are served with tiny sweets to prepare the palate before enjoying the mildly bitter green tea, the host carefully and gracefully rinses the tea bowl with hot water, discards the water and gently wipes the bowl dry with the white cloth as a symbol of purification.

She then adds two scoops of green tea powder to hot water and whisks it, using chasen before serving it to guests with the help of an assistant. The assistant bows to the guest as she serves the tea and the latter bows back.

After holding the tea bowl in her hands, the guest carefully rotates the bowl twice before taking the first sip, which is said to be a gesture to honor the host.

Every phase in the ritual is done with concentration and in tranquility, using slow and paced movements with an aim to hold the attention of the guest.

"Tranquility has to be preserved during the ceremony and the conversation must be limited to only things about the ceremony itself," said Sanny Soendoro from the Indonesian branch of Chado Urasenke on the sidelines of the ceremony.

After the guests enjoy the tea, the host, once again, pours a scoop of hot water into the bowl and whisks it with chasen. She then discards the water and gently puts the white cloth in the bowl and uses another cloth, wipes the tea container and chashaku before the guests.

Sanny explained that the whole ceremony represents patience and both internal and external cleanliness, respect towards guests and neighbors as well as other human beings.

"At the end of the ceremony, guests would leave with a feeling of satisfaction and admiration about the beauty of the ceremony."

The ceremony, she added, was still performed mostly by middle to upper class people in Japan. "It is expensive to master the ancient tea ceremony and takes years before a person is ready to assume the role of the host. Besides, the traditional costume and tea utensils are also pricey," Sanny said.

The silence atmosphere at the tea ceremony was like heaven and earth to that of the lively mochi-tsuki tradition, held at a nearby site.

Mochi-tsuki, or the pounding of glutinous rice to make mochi (round rice cakes with sweet filling), is an important traditional event in Japan to greet the New Year and is usually performed at the end of the year.

The mochi is made from sticky rice, which has been soaked in water overnight. The rice is put in an usu (a large wooden container) and the male participants, each with a huge, wooden hammer-like kine in his hands, pounded the rice to make it into an even paste. The paste was then shaped into small balls and filled with sweet fillings.

Hiroshi Saito, director of community relations with the Jakarta Japanese School, explained that the fillings usually depend on the items, easily available in their respective region, like beans or potato.

Some of the mochi, he added, are shaped into kagami mochi (a couple of mochi, placed on top of each other with the one on the bottom is slightly larger than the one on top). This kagami mochi is specially prepared for divine offerings and/or as a symbol of gratitude to ancestors.

Saito said the ancient snack can be eaten alone, flavored with soy sauce or served with vegetables and drizzled with miso soup, called zoni.

However, with the development of technology and machinery in the modern era, concern rises about the continuation of the mochi-tsuki tradition, which in the past helped bring family members closer together.

"In the past, family members gathered to prepare their own mochi but because of the modernization, mochi can now be made using machines and many modern families do not prepare their own mochi anymore since they can easily order or buy mochi from supermarkets," Saito said.