Everything You Need to Know About Senchadō

Japanese Tea Ceremonies

When it comes to the Japanese tea ceremony, you will have no doubt heard of 茶道, or sadō / chadō. This is also referred to as the "the way of tea" or 茶の湯, - chanoyu, which is a tea ceremony which revolves around matcha. But you may not know of Senchadō (The Way Sencha), a tea ceremony centered around loose leaf teas that was at times just as popular as chado and involves the preparation of loose leaf tea such as sencha and gyokuro.

These days sencha is mostly drunk in more casual settings, at one point it was consumed within a ceremony not too dissimilar to gongfucha. Unlike sadō / chanoyu, which is more formal and scripted during the serving of matcha, Senchadō is the opposite and allows for a much more casual and free flowing interaction between the host and the guests.

The History of Senchadō (煎茶道)

The history of Senchadō starts after the spreading of sencha across Japan. This began with the poet Ingen during the 17th century. He is most commonly known for founding the Obaku school of Zen Buddhism, but he also helped to establish Senchadō, a tea ceremony centered around teas like sencha and gyokuro.

Not long after, a priest called Gekkai Genshō, known as “Baisaō the “old tea seller", helped to further develop its popularity. Baisao was also a member of the Ōbaku school of Zen Buddhism, and became famous for traveling around Kyoto and selling tea. This is actually the reason why he was given the name Baisao which translates into old tea seller. During his lifetime he played a pivotal role in popularizing sencha in Japan, the impact of which is demonstrated worldwide to this day.

In the Meiji era, Senchadō spread as a means for commoners to congregate in admiring hosts’ tea collections. To this day Sencahdo is still practiced in Japan, but it’s mostly practiced within the more touristy locations. However, aside from that, it does also continue to be an element of the Obaku School Of Zen buddhism. Sadly it isn’t as popular as it once was and isn't practiced by nearly as many people, but at least it hasn’t been lost to time completely. Nagatani Soen developed sencha as we know it in 1738, It took him 15 years in total but as we’re sure you’ll all agree it was worth it. Up until then the term sencha had only been used to refer to the way that the leaves were prepared in boiling water.

The Senchadō Tea Ceremony

Senchadō ceremonies usually follow the following steps though some of these could be changed slightly depending on where the ceremony is taking place.

As of 2008, 39 schools became members of Zen Nihon Senchadō Renmei, and that number doesn’t include the many small schools which do not belong to the renmei. Each one of these schools practices the ceremony differently, some differences may be small and barely noticeable and others may be much bigger and change up a section of the ceremony completely. Senchadō usually spans a few hours just like Chanoyu but there are many differences between each ceremony other than just the tea.

To start off the ceremony, guests are taken to a specified sitting room. Before the ceremony begins, they may be served a drink.

Next the guests will make their way to the ceremony room and sit down. The host will enter the room and start to prepare the first steeping of the sencha or gyokuro. Sometimes this is accompanied by sweets called “Higashi” (a dry sweet from sugar and rice flour), these are not candy sweet but just mildly sweet enough that they can help cut through the umami.

The host will then usually prepare and serve a second steeping of sencha or gyokuro and it is also accompanied by sweets. You can steep your sencha or gyokuro more than twice, however two is usually the limit for Senchadō sessions.

Unlike sadō / chanoyu which is usually conducted silently, conversation is encouraged within the Senchadō ceremony and overall there seems to be a much more relaxed atmosphere in general when it comes to it. The light and casual atmosphere that is created during Senchadō helps everyone present feel more involved in it and as a result they feel at ease and relaxed.

A seasonal flower is placed in a vase and a fan is placed between the host and the guests to show the sign of politeness and respect. There is a spot reserved in the room for what is referred to as "the main guest", usually next to the host on their left.

After the first and second steep, before preparing a third the host will usually ask if anybody would like more tea, should the main guest politely decline that is seen as a sign to end the ceremony. Just like chanoyu, the movements done by the host have a lot of complexity and the host will hold and move utensils in certain ways and pour the tea in a specific way, making sure that each cup is quality, rich and well balanced before serving it to the guests. The main guest will be served first and all other guests after them.

Final Thoughts on Senchadō

Just like sadō / chanoyu, there are different schools of Senchadō and the ceremony varies between them all, including differences in location, teaware, utensils, and more. Some schools use Chinese teaware while others will exclusively use Japanese teaware, there are so many factors that lead to differences in the ceremony, so it can be experienced in so many different ways.

Before Baisao passed away, he burned all of his teaware and stopped selling tea as a protest to how much of a pedestal chanoyu had been put on. He did not want sencha to end up the same way and thought this was the best way to stop it. Despite the wishes of Baisao, after his death copies of the teaware he used were recreated, and sencha continues to only grow in popularity. For a long time now, sencha has been consumed way more than matcha in Japan.

Despite that not many people both internationally and domestically know the name Baisao as well as they know the name Sen No Rikyu (the founder of chanoyu) and arguably he should be given just as much credit.