History

The period between A.D. 1338 and 1650 in Japan was host to many influential master artists and artistic styles. The traditional tea ritual combined aspects of this height of artistic expression and religious insights at the time. This is considered “the ‘Way’ of Tea” (chadō) and is described to be self-transformative, “discloses the Buddha-mind,” and represents a way of living where art and life are fully integrated (Ludwig 1974, 28).

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The Way of Tea is not categorized as either “art for life's sake” or “art for art's sake,” but rather as “life for art's sake.” The tea masters lived their art in their everyday lives, and life itself was fashioned into art, creating a religio-aesthetic system where all activities of life were absorbed into a single aesthetic expression. The Way of Tea achieved a unique integration of art and religion where they formed a unified whole that encompassed the totality of life. It can be understood as a spiritual technique that involves a progression from mastering rules and techniques to achieving self-transformation and breakthrough into a state of “nothingness” or “no-mind-ness,” where the artist possesses free artistic creativity in both art and life (Ludwig 1974, 33-34).