The Chanoyu: An Overview

 THE CHANOYU: AN OVERVIEW

Representing purity and harmony, the Chanoyu, Sado, or Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony, is a historical ritual, important to Japanese culture, involving special tools and movements under strict etiquette. 

Japanese tea culture originates long ago, dating back to ninth century Japan, when Buddhist monks would serve tea to the Emperor, which had been prepared in an intricate and artistic process. Later the tea ceremony became popular among the upper social classes, such as the warrior elites and aristocrats, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Matcha, green tea in a fine powdered form originating from China, is one of the many rare imports used in the Sado ritual.

Japanese tea culture gained a modest methodology as its grounding, when tea aficionados realized that it should be so. The tea ceremony was then developed into an aesthetic, philosophical practice by tea masters such as Muarata Jukou and Sen no Rikyuu. This is also when the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, referring to valuing all the perfections and imperfections of nature, came about.

With this new approach to the Chanoyu, all social classes began to participate in tea ceremonies. It also resulted in the use of smaller, minimally decorated tea rooms, and the use of local tea products for all ceremonies became the mainstay, rather than imports.

The smaller tea rooms meant that only four or five guests could be allowed to attend the ceremony. Guests and the host use a stone basin to wash their hands after exchanging a silent bow, replacing their footwear with special slippers, before entering through a small door into the tea room. Depending on the season, location, and guests the elements of a traditional tea ceremony differ.

After entering the tea room, the host meticulously cleans all their tools whilst kneeling on  a cushion. The Japanese ceramic tea wares used in the ceremony can vary in style from refined, glazed designs to more rough minimalist ones. Upon boiling the water in an iron kettle, the hot kettle is carried by the host using a special cloth made of silk obtained from their kimono. The host then mixes some boiling water with the matcha in a bowl.

Koicha and usucha refer to the two main processes in which the tea is produced. Usucha, the less formal of the two, is prepared using a number of different colorful utensils and prepared in a well-lit tea room. First, the tea is whisked until it is foamy, then served to each guest in individual bowls. To compliment the match tea's bitter flavor, the guests are also offered wagashi sweets.

The other method, Koicha, is served as a thick paste, and shared among the guests using a single bowl for the whole ceremony. Guests take turns taking a sip before cleaning the rim, turning the bowl, and passing it on to the next guest. Unlike the Usucha method, koicha is served in a dimly lit room to create a soothing, calm environment.

At the tea ceremony, guests must adhere to strict rules of etiquette. They are not permitted to make chit-chat and must solely focus on the tea's taste and preparation. Guests must also compliment the tea room's design, as well as the host, in order to show their appreciation.

An Introduction to the Complexity of Japanese Kanji

A resident of New Jersey, Adam Porcher is pursuing a computer science degree at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, NJ. During his free time, Adam Porcher engages in a diverse range of interests, including the study of the Japanese culture and language.

Japanese is known as one of the most difficult languages to master for English speakers, largely due the complexity of the writing system. In addition to having not one but two alphabets, Japanese relies heavily on kanji, an ideographic system in which characters correspond to sounds, words, and entire concepts. Complicating matters further, kanji characters can often be read in multiple ways.

The complexity of kanji can be traced to its origins and the early history of the Japanese language. Originally, Japanese was only a spoken language, without any form of writing system at all. Japan’s neighboring country, China, did have a writing system, and as the two cultures intermingled, Japanese speakers began to adopt Chinese ideographic characters to represent Japanese spoken words. These ideographic characters became known as kanji. 

Early Japanese speakers didn’t simply map their own pronunciations onto Chinese characters. They sometimes adopted the Chinese pronunciation, as well. This meant that some kanji could have two completely different pronunciations meaning the same thing. For example, the kanji for “mountain,” which looks a bit like the head of a three-tined pitchfork, can be pronounced “yama,” the traditional Japanese word for “mountain,” or as “san,” which is the way the Chinese pronounced the character from which the kanji is derived.

The Three Writing Systems in the Japanese Language

A student at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, New Jersey, Adam Porcher most recently worked at The Brothers Moon, a restaurant in Hopewell, NJ. Outside of his academic and work life, Adam Porcher pursues a diverse range of interests, including learning the Japanese language.

Japanese is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers. The complexity of Japanese partly stems from its use of three different writing systems interchangeably and often within a single sentence. Here is a brief overview of each system:

- Hiragana. Unlike the straightforward 26 letters of the English alphabet, the Japanese language uses a syllabary of 46 characters. Each of the characters, known as “hiragana,” represents a syllabic unit, for example, “ka,” “sa,” and “chi.” Hiragana is often what people mean when they refer to the Japanese alphabet, though it is only a small part of the written language.

- Katakana. Similar to hiragana, “katakana” is a set of 46 characters that make up the Japanese syllabary. Katakana characters, however, look completely different from hiragana, even though they represent the same sounds. While hiragana is used to spell the majority of Japanese words, katakana characters are used for specific types of words, for example, words borrowed from other languages. 

- Kanji. Many words are represented with “kanji,” a pictographic system similar to the Chinese system. Tens of thousands of kanji exist in Japanese, with each kanji character often containing multiple meanings and pronunciations.

An Overview of the Japanese “Genkan”

Adam Porcher is a computer science student at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, where he also enjoys acting in theatrical productions. Adam Porcher previously worked as a host and clerk at The Brothers Moon in Hopewell, NJ. Outside of school, Mr. Porcher spends his free time playing sports, writing lyrics, drawing cartoons, and learning about Japanese culture and history.

One of the attributes of many Japanese homes is the “genkan,” or entrance foyer. Just like many homes in Western countries, the “genkan” is the place where homeowners traditionally receive their guests before they are ushered to the main living space. However, in a typical Japanese home, the “genkan” is also the place where guests take off their shoes and change into indoor slippers, so as not to bring any dirt into the house. The “genkan” is a slightly lower area of the floor and typically has a shoe closet where house residents and guests can store their shoes.

Some Japanese homes have a spacious, well-lit, and decorated “genkan” where there is a small bench for guests to sit on when they remove their footwear. There is also often a dedicated place to store umbrellas, keys, shopping bags, and letters.

While “genkans” are very common in Japanese homes, they can also be found in schools, hotels, traditional restaurants, and other establishments.

U.S. Government Eyeing Involvement in AI

A student at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, NJ, Adam Porcher is studying computer science. Outside of his schooling, New Jersey resident Adam Porcher maintains a personal interest in many computer and technology-related subjects, including artificial intelligence (AI).

In May, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis requested that President Trump create and implement a national strategy for artificial intelligence. According to the memo, the United States is falling behind other countries, such as China, when it comes to matters relating to AI. Already, China has fostered a military-civil fusion that tasks commercial and academic organizations in the country with being open about their involvement in AI projects alongside the military. If this avenue is ignored by President Trump, the United States may be left out of the next technological advance in warfare, which many planners and consultants believe will be AI.

While there’s been no report about how the memo was received by the White House, the administration did state that it would create a panel of government officials to study AI issues. The government is reportedly seeking new ties with AI researchers in Silicon Valley as part of its own efforts to boost national security and address upcoming defense strategies. Further, the Pentagon created the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) in June and the Defense Department announced that it wants to shift $1.7 billion of its budget over the next five years into a new office.

Tips for English Speakers Learning Japanese

Now several years into his studies, Adam Porcher is enrolled as a computer science major at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, NJ. Adam Porcher, who has lived in New Jersey and North Carolina, engages in a range of interests, including learning Japanese.

To learn Japanese, English speakers must learn three different character systems and different sentence structures. Here are a few tips to master this native language of over 128 million people.

Tie Your Learning to Real Life - While language classes can be helpful, it is important to practice Japanese in everyday situations to gain useful vocabulary and improve fluency. Learners can try to make recipes from a Japanese cookbook or read comic books written in Hiragana.

Find a Language Partner - Learners often focus more on reading and writing and have little practice listening and speaking. There are a number of free online language exchange groups where people can find a conversation partner.

Take Your Time - While grammar basics may not be the most interesting part of learning a new language, it is impossible to achieve fluency without having a strong foundation of basic language rules. Since there are very few grammar rules that apply to both languages, it is crucial for English speakers to learn basic Japanese sentence structures before moving on to more complex language concepts.

A Look at Ultimate Frisbee and Its Rules

Adam Porcher currently studies computer science at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey (NJ), where he has also participated in theater productions that include Lady Windermere’s Fan and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Outside of his academic pursuits, Adam Porcher also enjoys outdoor activities that include hiking, swimming, and ultimate Frisbee.

A non-contact sport, ultimate Frisbee features two teams of seven players that attempt to move the Frisbee down a rectangular field and score goals. Goals are scored by passing the Frisbee to a teammate in the opposing team’s endzone. 

Each ultimate Frisbee team must also abide by a number of rules. Players are not allowed to run with the Frisbee. Instead, they can only move it by completing passes to teammates. Moreover, the player with the Frisbee only has ten seconds to make a pass, or the possession switches to the opposing team. Ultimate Frisbee is also a non-contact sport, and sportsmanship and fair play is expected. Any contact with an opposing player results in a foul, which is called by the players themselves.