♥ · Yamazaki · Ayunee · · ♥

Adapted from Kateigaho International Edition, Winter 2006 issue, "Cha-kaiseki Winter cuisine - Appealing to the Five Senses" by Machico Yorozu

During the winter season, a hearth is set up in each teahouse, and seasonal tea presentations are performed. Yobanashi (tea ceremony conducted by candlelight from early evening until late at night) is a special ceremony conducted only at the coldest time of the year.

The ceremony proceeds as follows
-shoiri (the first tea ritual)
-zencha (starting tea)
-shozumi (the first of two procedures to add charcoal to the fire)
-kaiseki (the tea-ceremony meal)
-nakadachi (the recess between the kaiseki meal and the koicha service)
-koicha (thick tea)
-usucha (thin tea)
-nochizumi (the second of two procedures to add charcoal to the fire)

Careful planning goes into the planning of the kaiseki meal. The dishes served during the ceremony are set on individual trays used for the occassion. Food is light and easy on the stomach (such as simmered or grilled items), and the plates are often warmed out of consideration for the guests.

Kaiseki originally meant "breast stones," referring to the stones that Zen monks concelaed inside their robes to save off hunger pangs during their ascetic training. A special form of banquet cuisine, also called kaiseki but written with different characters, is served on auspicious occassions. Kaiseki-rori (kaiseki cuisine) is part of the formal tea ceremony, so it is sometimes called cha-kaiseki.

The meal is intended to satisfy the appetite of guests adequately so that they can appreciate the ensuing tea ceremony. It is a light meal consisting of basically of one kind of soup and three kinds of dishes. (Morning tea ceremonies features one soup and only two other dishes.)
Included in the meal are hashiarai ("rinsing the chopsticks") -- a clear soup to cleanse the palate - and hassun (two ingredients - one from teh sea, and one from the mountains), yuto (slightly salty hot water), and pickles. When selecting the menu, care is given to not serve food with strong smells or tastes.

On particularly auspicious occassions (i.e., the kuchikiri - ceremony for first tea of season), another side dish preceds the hassun -- the azuke-bachi or shiizakana and consists of pickled food or food with Japanese dressing.

Sample menu (contemporary menu-- for more ideas, consult list of links that go to other kaiseki pages at red-bird):
1. Rice, uzumi-dofu soup with miso and butterbur garnish. Side dish : Japanese scorpionfish and baby leek served with soy sauce flavored by Japanese hot peppers
2. Steam baked yuba
3. Salt-broiled yellowtail with pickles and mustard-flavored soysauce. Side dish of daikon radish with meat. Another side dish of crab, natto, and yam.
4. Salmon smoked, mushroom seasoned with soy sauce. Course of Hashiarai and peeled, pickled plum
5. Yuto in pitcher accompanies pickles of radish, red turnip and turnip leaves
6. The confection served at the end of the meal is called uzumibi. The reddish paste covers a ball of sweetened, mashed black bean paste.

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For other notes, refer to http://int.kateigaho.com/aut04/kyoto-tea-ceremony.html and also http://red-bird.org/himuragumiplus/culture/index.html . More info hopefully available soon.