The Deep Meaning Behind Tea Ceremony’s Most Famous Concept

This article from the Kiwi Yamabushi newsletter got more than 1,000 reads, so I decided to put it here for everyone. Get articles just like this in your inbox by signing up here. Paid subscribers get priority access and access to the full archive of over 100 articles.

A cup of green tea and sweet at Gyokusenji temple at the base of Haguro-san.

Sado, Japanese tea ceremony, is famous for 一期一会 Ichigo Ichie; One moment, one meeting, AKA one chance in a lifetime. As with many things, though, it took me a long time to realise what this was actually about.

Or, at the very least, my understanding has evolved over time.

As I understand it, Ichigo Ichie is like that most core element of Zen, of appreciating the moment for its fleeting nature. Ichigo Ichie is letting the moment last for as long as it needs to, not trying to prolong it unnecessarily, and focusing on simply being.

But, of course, I found that there was more to it than this simple explanation given to foreign tourists trying tea ceremony for the one and only time in their life.

I’ve always found it ironic how Japan is famous for its minimalistic aesthetic that emphasises extensive areas of blank space, yet Japanese TV shows, websites (cough, Rakuten, cough), pamphlets and the like are almost exclusively regurgitated text spewed over any available space.

Marie Kondo of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up fame’s YouTube thumbnails in Japanese and then English prove this point immediately, but different languages and cultures, which are the same thing, often portray the same thing in different ways.

This much is obvious as they are serving obviously different audiences, yet

Ichigo Ichie is no different.

The English wikipedia entry for Ichigo Ichie says:

The term reminds people to cherish any gathering that they may take part in, citing the fact that any moment in life cannot be repeated; even when the same group of people get together in the same place again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment is always a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Whereas the Japanese page also has:

茶会に限らず、広く「あなたとこうして出会っているこの時間は、二度と巡っては来ないたった一度きりのものです。だから、この一瞬を大切に思い、今出来る最高のおもてなしをしましょう」という含意で用いられ

Not only limited to the world of tea ceremony, Ichigo Ichie more broadly describes the notion of ‘this time we are sharing together is a one-time never-to-be-repeated thing. So, I will treat this moment with the respect it deserves, and give service to the best of my ability’.

This is very much related to the world of tea ceremony with the customer-server reference.

But there’s even more to it:

さらに「これからも何度でも会うことはあるだろうが、もしかしたら二度とは会えないかもしれないという覚悟で人には接しなさい」と言う言葉。

it’s possible that we will indeed meet again, but we have to interact in the knowledge that it is within the realm of possibility that this is our last ever meeting’.

Does this change how you view Ichigo Ichie? Does this change how you view meeting people?

It does for me.

Ichigo Ichie’s true power lies is in the interactions you don’t want to have. The meetings you wanted to skip but were dragged into. The event you went to out of courtesy to your friend. The people you came across in the supermarket you never wanted to talk to again, let alone see their face.

If we can recall Ichigo Ichie in these situations, it makes things go much more smoothly.

I like to think of Ichigo Ichie being less about meeting people though, and simply being more about moments. That way even when we are alone we can gain from this most insightful of Japanese concepts.

ENJOYED THIS? HAVE MORE.

MOUNTAINS OF WISDOM

Subscribe to my yamabushi newsletter

RECENT BLOG POSTS

Tim Bunting AKA Kiwi Yamabushi on Zao-san
Take your shot
Why do SHOGUN deserve their own shrine?
Mt. Chokai above the sea of Japan
Emperor on a Boat Day

YAMABUSHI BLOG POSTS

shallow focus of japanese calligraphy
Hit Publish and mean it
men standing on the white snow
What’s your relevance?
photo of women talking to each other
Understand the other, understand the self

RANDOM POSTS

coffee beans
Beans matter
The Trick to Waterfall Meditation
person holding blue ballpoint pen writing in notebook
Do it, and do it first!
Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Tim Bunting Kiwi Yamabushi

Get In Touch

Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan 

tim@timbunting.com

Share this:

Like this:

Like Loading...
Scroll to Top