Feudal tradition at your kitchen table
Tea ceremony, called sado or chanoyu, was formalized in the parties of 16th century shogun rulers, and can trace its lineage back to Zen monks in the 12th century.
The tea master Sen-no-Rikyu (1522–1591) combined the practice of drinking tea between meditation sessions with the highly formal patterns of Japanese noble society to create the tea ceremony we know today – infused with spirituality, symbolism, and extreme attention to detail.