From the porch of this Sinto temple there is a fine prospect over the town of Nagasaki and the beautiful hill-sides beyond; we can enjoy it at our leisure, while drinking the tea which one of the attendants of the temple has brought to us. Tea is of course the most usual beverage in Japan; wherever the traveller wants it, it is always ready, and you can scarcely go a day’s journey in the country without being offered at least a dozen cups of it, at different points on your route. There is a tea-house to almost every hundred yards of street in every Japanese town; a tea-house in every country village, however remote or small: a tea-house or tea-shed to every two or three miles of country road, or mountain path.
To a new comer the beverage may not be at first very palatable, for it is not only of a different flavour to the black tea which we drink in England, being always of the green kind; but also it is drunk pure and simple, with scarcely a minute allowed for brewing, and without any such foreign auxiliaries as milk or sugar. Yet almost every traveller or resident in Japan learns to appreciate it, for it is undeniably refreshing, and being taken fresh and weak, is perfectly harmless, even when a dozen cups or more are taken daily.
Round the World in 1870 (1872)
We had Champagne to drink, and also saki, the wine of the country made from rice, which the Japanese drink hot, but they allowed us to have it cold. It was handed round in very small cups, and even when taken cold is not at all good, but tastes rather like very attenuated amontillado.
Letters from China & Japan (1875)
As to beverages, besides tea, rice-beer or saké, the intoxicating drink of the Chinese and Japanese, plays the first part in the country. The ordinary saké is a light drink, but the strongly spiced double saké has an intoxicating effect. The saké, which is generally taken warm, seldom suits a European’s taste, but the native is very fond of it, and won’t miss it at any festive occasion; at his temple festivals he makes offerings of it to the gods.
Japan As I Saw It (1912)
The ruling vice in Japan is, undoubtedly, drunkenness. It pervades all classes, though it is confined by the force of public opinion to the male sex. On a festival of the third day of the third month women are indeed allowed great license, and in their harems, from which on that day even their lords are excluded, they may indulge to any extent in the forbidden cup; but a woman of the lower class who should be found drunk at any other time, would expose herself to a severe beating from her husband, while were she of the higher class she might die by the sword of her spouse. ... Few Japanese are fit for business in the evening, and during the afternoon many streets in Yeddo are rendered wholly unsafe by the troops of drunken retainers, whose drawn swords are the terror of the inhabitants.
Across America and Asia (1870)
Through a kind invitation from a leading Japanese barrister, we were able to witness the O Cha No Yu, or Ceremonial Tea Drinking, in full perfection at his private house. Instead of the absolute silence generally enforced on such occasions, we had the advantage of explanations given by him in English, and could closely follow each stage of the proceedings.
No diligent student of Japanese life and manners can have failed to come across allusions to this famous Ceremonial Tea Drinking, which, though rapidly dying out in the atmosphere of modern innovations, is still reckoned part of the necessary education of people in good society, and, by its deliberate dignity, gives a crowning touch to the foreigner’s impression of this peculiarly courteous people. ...
The ceremony, to put it shortly, consisted in the preparation of a single cup of tea, but when it must be added that nearly two hours were required to bring about this great result, some idea will be formed of the innumerable details involved.
First, as to the guests. The number of their bows in entering, or in sitting down; or in passing the cup; or in acknowledging any little act of the hostess, were truly astonishing, yet each was prescribed by rule. The hostess, on her side, followed an equally strict etiquette; and in the number of steps she took in approaching the little stove where the precious liquid was to be brewed; in the quantity and arrangement of the pieces of charcoal she used on it; and in the various motions needed to suitably brush the kettle and tongs, and lay down the spoons, etc., she never failed in the smallest particular, nor abated one iota of the absolute absence of hurry and tedium of detail so necessary to a perfect observance of the Tea Ceremony.
Four distinct stages were observed; the arrival of the guests and preparation of the stove; the making of the tea; the partaking of it by the guests; and the admiration by the guests of each implement, which, as our host remarked, had “contributed to so delightful a feast.”
Let us note a few remarkable points in each. The room was empty, except for the stove, and a tiny table a few inches high to hold the cups, etc. The kettle was boiled with much solemnity, but at the crucial moment its contents were diluted with several spoonfuls of cold water! No teapot was used, but fine green powdered tea was stirred up with a little whisk. One cup sufficed for the four guests, and each, as he or she received it, twisted it three times and took a prescribed number of sips. A different motion was employed in passing it from a man to a woman, and vice versâ, and deep bows and prostrations filled up every interval in the entertainment.
Our wonder grew, and it is to be hoped our patience deepened, as the strange elaborate ceremony proceeded. But towards its close a clue as to its charms for the Japanese mind was certainly given by our kind host, when he explained that it had been founded by Hideyoshi, one of the most famous generals of Japan, in a very warlike time when men’s minds were much agitated. Hideyoshi had therefore devised the O Cha No Yu, and ordered its observance in strict silence before every secret meeting of his officers to “calm the spirits,” and prevent undue haste in any important decision.
Japan As We Saw It (Bickersteth) (1893)
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