2018

Okakura Kakuzo’s Book of Tea: chapter “The Cup of Humanity” “The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer , painting -our very literature-  all have been subject to its influence.” The …

Using paraphrase times three allows me to further analyze sentences or concepts.  When reading a complicated sentence or idea, it can be easier to just graze through it in a larger text, neglecting its true purpose.  When paraphrasing a complicated sentence, I have realized that I tredge deeper into my interpretation, making sense of what …

The Cup of Humanity “The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer , painting -our very literature-  all have been subject to its influence.” The entirety of Japanese culture has …

When reading the poems about tea in class, I came across one common theme, the glorification of tea through nature. Two poems that I feel have expressed this link particularly well are Lu Tong’s “Written in haste to thank Imperial Censor Meng for his gift of freshly pricked tea” and Jiaoran’s “Making fun of the …

In our last class meeting, we visited the community garden. We spent most of our time with the plants that have some sort of use to humans, such as medicinal, herbal, or culinary.  I explored and analyzed the sage plant.  Its leaves grow opposite one another, perfectly balanced.  The strong stem was about 24 inches …

Throughout “The Debate between Mr. Tea and Mr. Alcohol”, both Mr. Alcohol and Mr. Tea use arguments in defense and offense but in a rather chaotic fashion.  Each argument seems to be fueled more by emotion, preference, and person experience rather than complete logic. Although some factual information is used, the characters mix them up …

Pick the leaves. Wither the leaves in thin layers for 18 hours. To check if the tea leaves have been withered for the perfect amout of time, twist them in your hands to make sure they do not break. To break down cells by adding pressure, use rolling machine for one hour.  When the hour …

This past Friday, the 14th of September, I visited the Muhlenberg Community Garden.  I arrived a few minutes before the rest of the class, and did not see anyone in the garden so I sat at a picnic table and admired the small, slightly neglected fenced in area.  Soon, I was joined by my classmates, …

After reading these three texts, my views on tea expanded to become aware of its origin and unique purpose.  I never thought about tea in this light before I took this course or read these texts, but I find the legend of Shennong quite interesting. Tea is such an old invention and because of this …