Sowing The Moon Teahouse

The Way of Tea at Green Gulch

Sowing the Moon Teahouse is a authentically constructed Japanese teahouse, located at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, California. The grounds include a traditional roji (tea garden).

Classes in the Way of Tea, in the Urasenke tradition are offered, by Meiya Wender and Scott McDougall. 

We also offer Sunday afternoon (monthly) tea gatherings which are open to the public as well private tea gatherings. To register for a scheduled tea gathering, please call the Green Gulch office: 415-383-3134.

You are also invited to contact us to arrange a tea gathering for your friends, family, school or professional group, or work colleagues. Teas can be held in celebration or commemoration, for those interested in experiencing Japanese culture, or simply as an intimate way to meet.

For more information about classes or tea gatherings please e-mail us at: GreenGulchTea@sfzc.org or call Jeremy Levie at 415-354-0428.

Information about Green Gulch Zen Center is available online at:  www.sfzc.org

Please post your thoughts on tea as COMMENTS on this blog. All those interested in Tea are also invited to send me articles and information of interest to the Tea Community, to be posted on the blog. Sign up by putting your e-mail address in the little box. Keep in touch.

Thank you for your support.

Meiya Wender,

Blog editor

Private Tea Gatherings

You are invited to contact us to arrange a tea gathering for your friends, family, school or professional group. Teas can be held in celebration or commemoration, for those interested in experiencing Japanese culture, or simply as an intimate way to meet.

Sumi-e Paintings

Tea guests and students are now enjoying sumi-e paintings on the fusuma of the teahouse. After several years of discussion and waiting for the right moment to present itself, Nanga painter Michael Hofmann painted the fusuma in July of this year. The paintings encapsulate our Tea and Zen heritage -  Green Gulch / Bay Area landscapes - hillsides,coast and foggy mountains - done by a Californian who trained in Japan in a tradition that came from China.

Michael was raised in the Bay Area and has lived in Japan for most of the last 34 years, studying painting with a Nanga painter and Buddhist priest, the late Jikihara Gyokusei. Nanga, (Southern School of Chinese Painting),  is also known as "bunjin-ga" - "literati painting" - and is closely identified with the Obaku Sectof Zen.

Michael's work can be seen at: http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~ttstudio/hof-e.html

Making a Chashaku

Tools and supplies

Attractive bamboo, at least 3-4 cm. diameter

Froe or chisel and mallet

Saw

Carving knife

Sandpaper

Masking tape

Deep pot

stove or hot plate

Candle

Making ‘blanks’

Choose pieces of bamboo and saw into lengths of about 35 cm. Wrap masking tape around the pole before sawing, to prevent splintering. 
From node to tip: about 20 cm. (If necessary, it could be as short as 14 cm.)
From node to end: 13 cm.

Split the lengths with a froe or chisel, choosing which parts you want to use for chashaku. Depending on bamboo diameter, you may get 2 or 4 or even more possible pieces from one length. Trim the ‘blanks’ to about 2-3 cm. wide.

Mark area to bend.

Using a belt sander, sand paper, or knife, remove back of node and flatten the blank in the area where it will bend.

Soak in water for a day, then heat the water and simmer.

Remove bamboo from water and immediately heat over candle flame, continually moving it and being careful not to scorch it. When it softens, bend gently.

 Plunge bamboo into ice water and tie with cord to maintain the bend, or prop between weights until completely dry.

Trim both ends with a saw

 

Tools for chashaku making are available at these 2 stores & online.

 Hida Tool (in Berkeley, CA)
http://www.hidatool.com/index.html
Kiridashi knife (& others)

Japan Woodworker  (in Alameda, CA)
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/page.asp?content_id=2896
“knives for woodworkers”
3/4" Blue Steel Woodworking Knife (Kogatana) (& others)They also have froes for splitting bamboo.

Chabana List

Here is a listing of flowers used in the tea room, giving scientific name, common name and Japanese name. You should be able to alphabetize the list according to whichever type of name you like.

Please send additions and corrections to the list, including flower stories, mythology, and literary references.

Download chabana_names_master.doc

Directions to Green Gulch

Sowing the Moon Teahouse
Green Gulch Farm Zen Center
1601 Shoreline Highway
Muir Beach, CA 94965

Take Highway 101 to "Highway 1 - Stinson Beach" exit. Follow all green signs in the directions of Stinson Beach - Muir Beach. At traffic light / intersection (rug store, gas station) turn left onto Shoreline Hwy (Highway l).
(When you come to a "V" in a couple of miles, stay to the left. Do not go towards Muir Woods.)
At the 5.1 mile marker, a large sign on the left indicates the driveway to ZEN CENTER / GREEN GULCH FARM / WHEELWRIGHT CENTER.
Turn left into the driveway and park either in the first parking lot or in the residents' parking lot, farther on. Follow signs pointing to the Office and you will see the teahouse. Enter the garden through the front gate.

Kanten

Download blue_plum_brandy_kanten.doc

Download kanten_with_blended_fruit.doc

Download berry_mizu_yokan.doc

Recipies

Download ukishima_827.doc

Machiai - Waiting Bench

Tea Essay

The Way of Tea

Green Gulch Zen Center

Sowing the Moon Teahouse

 

And the heart, unscrolled,

Is comforted by such small things:

A cup of green tea rescues us, grows deep and large,

A lake.[1]

 

The Way of Tea has been described as a spiritual practice, a performance art, as how to hold a social gathering, and as simply making a fire, boiling water, whisking green tea, and serving it to one’s guests. Its essence is heart to heart meeting through full awareness of transiency; its form is the making, giving, and receiving of tea and a bite to eat.

 

A monk asked Ummon: “What are the teachings of

 Buddha’s whole lifetime?”

Ummon said: “An appropriate response”

 

The Way of Tea is an approach to practicing with this koan of how to respond appropriately, how we can truly meet. As host, one studies how to create an intimate setting within the four bare walls of the tea room, choosing calligraphy by a respected teacher – usually a phrase from a Zen text – to place in the tokonoma along with seasonal flowers; selecting tea bowls and other utensils, keeping the particular guests and occasion in mind. In the role of guest, we train in mindful awareness from the time of entering the gate of the garden, to rinsing hands at the tsukubai, entering the tea room, and noticing the objects in the tokonoma, the sound of the kettle, the steam rising, the smell of incense, how we walk across the tatami, the taste of the tea, the feel of the tea bowl in the hands. In the quiet space of the tearoom, the traditional forms of The Way of Tea, the formal movements and handling of utensils offer us the opportunity to express our hearts and deepest intention. Both in conversation and with the whole body, host and guest express appreciation and respect for each other and for everything and everyone who made the gathering possible. Host, guest, unseen helpers, fire, water, tea bowls, tea, and flowers, join with the poetic phrase displayed in the tokonoma to call forth the Dharma.

 

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[1] Jane Hirshfield