American Tea Ceremony

Notes for an American Tea Ceremony

A full tea-set built for use on the open ocean Gymbaled tea set, made for Capt. Edgar Bowles of the whaleship Nimrod, c. 1855, courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.

History

The American tea ceremony was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1779, in a letter addressed to Congress from Japan-

"On this island, where tea is as well loved as in England, the men have a ceremony very strange and fixed by ancient custom. Might not Americans soon develop their own native distinctions, as strange to their fellowes?"

Thomas Payne seemed to echo Franklin's sentiment in an undated pamphlet, albeit with reservations about the use of tea-

"Any good man, who values his friends and the good fortunes that they have to live in a free nation, might choose to celebrate with coffee. It is better, I say, than beseeching prayer. It is a thanksgiving and a manner for a man to share good charity and good will. I say, that I shall have a celebration every Sunday!"

In its 18th century origins, the ceremony was as much rooted in English tradition as in Japanese form. It was the re-emergence of Orientalisim in the mid and late 19th century that brought a strong Eastern influence back into the American ceremony. The New England Practice, as it is now known, was developed by Isabella Stuart Gardener and her circle of acquaintances. Brought west almost immediately, it renewed interest in tea ceremony and sewed the seeds of all "modern" forms.

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher It was not universally popular, however. MFK Fisher writes about learning New England Practice in her San Francisco boarding school, circa 1928.¹-

"How we dreaded that dim basement room, and that vole-faced Tea Mistress! She would lean in as you stirred your tea, her nose nearly dipping into the cups. She would sniff. I was never so bored, and hardly ever so terrified.

Imagine my surprise when, years later, I was invited to my first ceremony outside of school...

I had spent the evening previous trying to dredge up each horrible detail, to remember the order of the spoons, and wondering if my small gift (a carefully chosen length of pink silk ribbon) would be sufficient.

When I arrived, though, what a happy, gracious event it proved to be! Pink ribbon was just the thing, cried my host, to tie back her gorgeous blond hair. And although the ceremony followed those old, barely remembered forms, it was transformed utterly! What freedom they found amidst constraint.

...I realize now that the tea ceremony is very like a recipe, where it is not the ingredients per se, but in the subtlety and confidence of their combination, that determines the quality of the final dish."

Mrs. Fisher became a proponent of the new Western Practice, which has become the most popular school of American tea ceremony in the last fifty years.

Edgefield Teapot Ceramic teapot, made by slave potter Dave, c. 1850. Inscribed- "Fill this Pot with China Tee, Drink a Peaceful Cup with Me." Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Today

The American tea ceremony has seen challenges in recent times. The Beats rejected it as bourgeois2, Harvard Student Uprising Poster although their interest in Zen led to serious investigations of the original Japanese form. The counterculture of the 1960's, otherwise fascinated with all things Eastern, also had difficulty absorbing the only genuine expression of Buddist philosophy native to America. One of the chief complaints against the student occupation of Harvard in 1968 was that it broke a 90 year string of weekly student/faculty tea ceremonies.

The American conservative movement has likewise been critical, even picketing public ceremonies and promoting "Christian alternatives" in recent years. Their efforts have mostly failed, however, due to the deep roots and ecumenical nature of tea ceremony; in 1981, no less a right-wing luminary than Irving Kristol called it, "A near-perfect expression of patriotic individualism."

Although the pressures of modern life have eroded many American traditions, the tea ceremony had endured. Like many of their parents' traditions, it has been embraced, by former flower-children and Goldwater Girls alike, who now send their own offspring to tea lessons by the millions. The American Parent Teacher Association lists tea ceremony as the forth most common afterschool activity in the nation, right behind karate.

It has been estimated that there is at least one ceremony somewhere in America at any given time. Tea ceremonies are still performed by the Atlantic fishing fleet at sea, among the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, at more than 400 military bases, and by every sitting president since Jefferson except Millard Fillmore. Western practice remains by far the most popular form, but there are more than 100 recognized schools or variations, including the Quaker school, practiced by Lizzie Borden, and the Company school, employed by African-American college fraternities.

Guidelines

Cups must not match. The goal of the ceremony is to create lightness. America is a land of effortless variety, so an ideal setting would contain glass, plastic, clay and enamel without seeming contrived.
Water should be boiled in an old teapot, as if it were first purchased at a garage sale, and then brought to a vacation home.
If tea is served, it should be of the highest quality. In Massachusetts, coffee is always served.
Guests should be greeted by an open door. If a guest should feel uncomfortable simply entering without knocking, the host has not taken pains beforehand to make them feel welcome.
Tea can be served at any time. A morning tea is best for rural areas. An evening or midnight tea is best served in the city, ideally after dancing, theater, or a film of personal significance. Midnight tea is always semi-formal. Guests are invited, however, to loosen the ties on their tuxedos and undo their cummerbunds before sitting.
Honey is often served in preference to sugar, which is associated with the cruelty of the slave trade. Conversely, descendants of enslaved Africans may choose to honor their ancestors by serving white or brown sugar, or molasses.
Unlike Japan, there exists no native tea architecture. Ceremonies can be held in any room of the house where guests can be made comfortable—dining room, kitchen, parlor. If held in the dining room, guests should be invited to help set the table. Bedroom teas are generally only held by prostitutes entertaining multiple customers, but were noted in the 19th century as being among the most profound.
The goal of the ceremony is to create an experience of emotional intimacy and democracy. Although violence is usually unwelcome, it is appropriate on rare occasions.
Guests are invited to bring a small gift. Ideally, it should be neither ostentatious³ or excessively frugal⁴, but calculated to delight.
Recorded music is generally inappropriate in a tea ceremony; neither is it a concert. Songs can be sung in turn or in the round, a capella or accompanied.
If liquor is served, it should be drunk just to the point of intoxication. Guests should leave neither sober or besotted.

Notes

1) Some students look back very fondly on their lessons in tea ceremony. Vintage "unbreakable" tea sets for children can fetch upwards of 1,000 dollars on Ebay, depending on the condition and completeness of the set.

2) Alan Ginsburg included this fragment in a letter to Lawrence Ferlingetti in 1959,

A mother's old tea cups/
Daily scoured/
And so smelling of Bon-Ami/
The rims whose chips might catch/
and cut the lips/
Of her unwary sons and daughters

It is thought to refer to Jack Kerouac's famously fraught relationship with his mother.

3) Nikita Kruschev's gift of an entire 300 lb. smoked sturgeon (and its prepared caviar) to the First Kennedy Tea of 1963 was considered a major diplomatic blunder.

4) Henry Ford famously disliked tea ceremony, and would express his displeasure by bringing ink. "This is the only black ink you will ever see," he was overheard saying, "unless you abandon these wasteful endeavors!"

It is worth noting that ink is an appropriate gift for a person of average means, and much appreciated by students, artists and accountants.

Mother, Father, Son, Daughter Farm Family at Tea, Iowa, 1933. From the WPA Photograph Collection, Colorado State Archives.

end