Sencha and『Kusamakura』煎茶と『草枕』

Sōseki Natsume 夏目漱石 (1867-1916), 

one of Japanese's most influential modern writer, is widely considered the foremost novelist of the in Meiji era (1868-1912). 

His novels have been read by many people. Probably, every Japanese has read his novel (at least a part of the novel) in the textbook for school once. 

So I have known Sōseki since I was a student, but I hadn't been really interested in his novels until last winter.

In last winter, a man I met by chance happened to recommend me Sōseki's『Kusamakura 草枕』as a book which is filled with all kind of beauty. He didn't tell me further information about the book, but it was enough for me to want to read it. 

And I didn't know there would be the scene about Sencha in the story yet.

『Kusamakura 草枕』begins with these sentences :

1.

As I climb the mountain path, I ponderー

 If you work by reason, you grow rough-edged; if you choose to dip your oar into sentiment's stream, it will sweep you away. Demanding your own way only serves to constrain you. However you look at it, the human world is not an easy place to live.

And when its difficulties intensify, you find yourself longing to leave that world and swell in some easier oneーand then, when you understand at least that difficulties will dog you wherever you may live, this is when poetry and art are born.

...  So if this best of worlds proves a hard one for you, you must simply do your best to settle in and relax as you can, and make this short life of ours, if only briefly, an easier place in which to make your home. Herein lies the poet's true calling, the artist's vocation. We owe our humble gratitude to all practitioners of the arts, for they mellow the harshness of our human world and enrich the human heart.

 Yes, a poem, a painting, can draw the sting of troubles from a troubled world and lay in its place a blessed realm before our grateful eyes. Music and sculpture will do likewise. ......

... When I had lived in this world for twenty years, I understood that it was a world worth living in. At twenty-five I realized that light and dark are sides of the same coin; that wherever the sun shines, shadows too must fall. Now, at thirty, here is what I think: where joy grows deep, sorrow must deepen; the greater one's pleasures, the greater the pain. ......

This story follows its nameless young artist narrator on a meandering walking tour of the mountains. At the inn at a hot spring resort, he has a series of mysterious encounters with Nami who reminds him of John Millais' painting Ophelia. Nami or "beauty", is the center of this elegant novel.

In Kusamakura, many works/pieces/names of the Japanese, Chinese or European artists, painters, writers, calligraphers, poets or Confucians appear. Those scenes lets us step into the tempting world of beauty. It also proves that Sōseki had an intimate knowledge of arts and literature. He has studied Chinese literature and poetry, Japanese Haiku poetry and English(British) literature. It's said that his life wasn't going well and easy. He had to face many tough times. But he left the great legacy in Japanese literature.

Where I was enchanted the most is of course the part the young artist was invited for tea by Mr.Shimoda who is the master of the house and also Nami's father. He invited an abbot and a young man besides the young artist. He was served Gyokuro, and the description is so marvelous that I want to share with tea drinkers or tea lovers this time.

8.

...  " Well now, the tea is poured. Do have some, " the old man says, placing a cup before each of us. There are no more than three or four drops of tea in each, though the cups themselves are very large. The glaze is a light gray ground, daubed all over with burnt sienna and pale yellow brushstrokes that may have been intended as a painting or merely as a pattern, reminiscent of a half-formed devil's face. ...

... I bring the raised cup directly to my lips. A connoisseur with time on his hand will elegantly taste this rich, delicately sweet liquid, ripened in the precise temperature of the hot water, by letting it run one drop at a time onto the tip of the tongue. Most people believe that tea is to be drunk, but that is a mistake. If you drop it gently onto the tongue and let the pure liquid dissipate in your mouth, almost none of it remains for you to swallow.

Rather, the exquisite fragrance travels down to permeate the regions of the stomach. Using the teeth on solid food is vulgar, while mere water is insipid. The best green tea, on the other hand, surpasses fresh water in its delicate, rich warmth, yet lacks the firmness of more solid substance that tire the jaw. Tea is, in fact, a marvelous drink. To those who spurn it on the grounds of insomnia, I say that it's better to be deprived of sleep than of tea.    ... and on ...

The part 【 Most people believe that tea is to be drunk, but that is a mistake. If you drop it gently onto the tongue and let the pure liquid dissipate in your mouth, almost none of it remains for you to swallow. 】is very impressive. This is the ultimate way of drinking tea (gyokuro). 

From his writings and names appeared in 『Kusamakura』, I believe Sōseki must have experienced the opportunity of Sencha-do or had a taste of Sencha-do.