This is a very special kanji for Shienakara, as we had studied it some time ago, but we had the honor to learn and deepen it in Kyoto through the tea ceremony.

The tea ceremony is the ritual of preparing Matcha tea for a small group of guests, always in a quiet environment and in connection with nature.

And if we talk about the tea ceremony, we must mention Sen no Rikyu (16th century), the father of this ceremony. Sen no Rikyu preferred the elegance of simplicity over Chinese ornamentation, so we can say that he was one of the first to incorporate the aesthetic ideal of wabi-sabi (the beauty of simplicity) in the tea ceremony.

From then on, he also began to use simple and rustic instruments made of bamboo. And he was responsible for the popularization of rustic-style teahouses (so-an), small huts with only a few mats of space. Sen no Rikyu also introduced the ideal ichi-go ichi-e into Japanese culture. This Kanji is a belief that each encounter should be treasured as unique, as it may never be repeated, and through this ideal the central principles in the tea ceremony were established:

Harmony (和, wa): in the utensils, the arrangement of the space….
Respect (敬, kei): between guests and host.
Purity (清, sei): cleanliness of utensils and space (cleanliness during ritual).
Tranquility (寂, jaku): obtained by attaining the three other values.

This piece also contains an Enso circle 円相; this is a circle done with brush in one stroke ink and originally comes from Zen culture. This reflects the artist’s mind at the time of composition by means of a single stroke, so it will be unique to each piece.

• Original painted in Japanese Caligraphy (Shodo) technique.
• Materials: Cotton Paper and Japanese Ink
• Size: 9,84 x 9,84″ / 25x25cm
• Unique piece without frame.

Please note: This listing is for the Ichi-go ichi-e (一期一会) artwork only. The second picture is just for display purposes and is not included.