Greeting the New Year
by Dr. Sen Genshitsu, Hōunsai Daisōshō
As we face this New Year I am sure every person, in
his or her own manner, has expressed the profound hope it will be
a year of security and good health. In my household we welcomed
the New Year with the same hopes, by means of long-established customs.
At the gray light of the first dawn, fresh water was drawn from
the well named Ume no i 梅の井. The banked New Year's Eve fire was
rekindled. A bowl of tea was offered first to the memory of Sen
Rikyu in the Onsodō, then to the memory of my other ancestors
and guardians of the house, and finally to members of my family
and the masters who teach chanoyu directly under me. Later I was
able as usual to offer New Year's greetings, along with a bowl of
tea, to the many guests at the first gatherings held in Kyoto and
Tokyo.
Thus, each year, events which occur in a never-ending
cycle are transmitted to the future, but in this transmission (伝承 denshō),
is a very important concept, that is, to impart knowledge and humbly
receive from the past (伝え 承る tsutae uketamawaru). Recently there
are many people who, from the close of one year to the start of
the next, travel abroad or within their country in order to greet
the New Year away from home. As the threshold of a New Year approaches,
I myself must carry out the function of preserving connections that
have been passed down from my ancestors, such as that the fires
of a previous year succeed to the present without being extinguished.
That is to say, I must act as the guardian of these halls in which
I live.
In the act of striving to ward this continuity with
the past are ways particular to that path, and existences particular
to the household, wherein one who lives there becomes indelibly
immersed. I am there in the house to see that this single fire does
not die out, that it in fact spreads a greater warmth. Taking a
bowl of tea in my hands, I modestly examine myself and, as a person
who imparts knowledge of this way, resolve to be aware of the importance
of this year's aspirations.
In the Kokin waka shu poetic anthology is the following
poem by Minamoto Masazumi.
谷風に
とくるこほりの
ひまごとに
うちいづる浪や
春のはつ花
tanikaze ni
tokuru kōri no
hima goto ni
uchiizuru nami ya haru no hatsuhana
might they perhaps be
the first blossoms of springtime
those waves bursting forth
through each crevice in the ice
melting in the valley breeze*
The white waves breaking upon dispersing ice must
have looked like the first blossoms of white plum. This poem teaches
that we must not forget the feeling of gratitude. The joy of being
able to greet the New Year in peace, something for which we should
not feel personal satisfaction, is a great blessing we have received
from our ancestors.
Last year's services for Sen Rikyu's Four Hundredth
Memorial are over. This year many busy days will be spent preparing
for the various activities planned for the fiftieth anniversary
of the Tankō Association in Japan, and travelling to events
that will take place abroad. I pray each event proceeds smoothly.
In addition, I hope each of you will keep in mind that a single
bowl of tea represents a cultural activity of extraordinary breadth
and strong presence. I ask that those of you who study the way of
tea remember the valuable experiences of attending and hosting ever
more tea gatherings, and make the true form and spirit of chanoyu
ever more comprehensible to larger numbers of people.
Translated by Christy A. Bartlett. Originally published
in the Urasenke Foundation San Francisco's newsletter Wakamatsu
No. 24 Spring 1991.
*McCullough, Helen, Kokin waka shu. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985. KKS #12. p. 16.
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