It feels great to finalise and post the next 10 lines of Oribe's 100 Lines of Chanoyu after some busy weeks away from the keyboard in Australia.
Here are some lines that I would like to discuss a little further. This is a small serve for this blog. For the full lowdown, please visit my Patreon.
76.
- 同客あるきやう、いつかたニ而いろり畳よけ申候、いつかたにても。
- In a 4.5 mat room, guests should always avoid walking on the mat where the hearth is cut.
This is an interesting entry. This would mean that guests walked around the perimeter of the room. This is still practiced today in the Shino school of kōdō (incense). The Shino Ryū claims to continue the etiquette originating in the 10 mat room of Tōgudō 東求堂, Ginkaku-ji, where Ashikaga Yoshimasa and co were practicing incense and tea. In the Shino Ryū room etiquette, host and guest walk around the perimeter of the room.
For a 4.5 mat room, it is impossible to avoid the centre half mat where the hearth is cut. Perhaps it was acceptable to inhabit this mat on one's knees rather than standing.
77.
- 同茶立候時、ふた置先畳。
- In a 4.5 mat room, the lid rest is placed on the adjoining mat.
78.
- 同袋棚ノ時、ふた置前ノ畳。
- But when using a fukuro-dana, the futaoki is placed on the same mat as the host.
These futaoki placements are the opposite of the way practiced in the Ueda Ryū today. Nowadays, the host's izumai (formal sitting position for the temae) is aligned with the outside corner of the robuchi (hearth frame) when there is a display stand (tana). As the host faces more to the higher side of the tearoom, and as the tana takes up a lot of space on the host's mat, the futaoki is placed on the outside mat, more towards the upper side of the room and creating space on the host's mat. A diagram and details follows:
For a single mizusashi, the host's izumai is aligned with the inner corner of the rodan (fire box). As there are few pieces of equipment on the host's mat, placing the futaoki on the host's mat is in harmony both with the lesser number of utensils on the mat and the fact the host is facing more towards the lower part of the room. A diagram and details follow:
The following picture includes a 'fukuro-dana' type of sideboard mentioned in line 78.
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Tyas Sosen (Thursday, 06 December 2018 05:12)
What I believe he is alluding to with no. 76 is that on the mat where the hearth is cut, the tea and the utensils for haiken are set out to the right of the hearth (seen from the teishu's point of view). This area in specific should not be threaded on as it should remain a reserved area (or somewhat a sacred space) as a connecting space between the host and the guests. In Enshu, should in any case there be a need to move over that space, in the case of haiken after sumi-demae and when there is a wooden board in place limiting the guests from moving into the temae-za from any other position, then that area should be transgressed on one's knees, using the fists and thumbs to pull one's body over that area of the matting.