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(CNN) – Participate in ancient Japanese tradition, drinking from an ancient bowl of $ 25,000 and even experiencing the vibrations of Austin Powers of the 1970s.
In the Okubo Gallery in Tokyo, Yanaka District, it can be all part of the experience, with antique vendor Mitsuru Okubo and his family presenting a traditional Japanese tea ceremony experience – from a new to 300-year-old bowl selection, to some $ 25,000-old antique museum rooms.
The idea behind the gallery is that Japanese tea experts want the visitor to feel the bowls and taste the drink – and at an affordable price. It is an art and history accessible to the general public.
Of course, in the 18th century, there are some modern options if you go out in a cold sweat thinking about what would happen if you threw a $ 25,000 bowl.
As you enter the gallery on a quiet sidewalk, visitors will be greeted with a variety of cups, bowls and displays on the first floor. Osubo’s daughter, Atsuko, walks out of the adjoining room to greet the visitors and climbs the stairs to the second floor of the printing house, which is the traditional setting for tea.
Accommodation is designed for Western visitors, as there are permanent seats on the dry floor, so visitors don’t have to sit on the ground like the Japanese tradition – and it hurts a lot if you don’t practice. it is.
In a small room on the side, tea bowls are placed on four shelves. These are your choices, Atuko explains in English, and then highlights some interesting details about each bowl, such as age, origin, and the authorized tea master.
Atsuko Okubo shows some of her family’s old tea bowls to their customers to choose from at a tea party in Japan.
Brad Lenden / CNN
It was Atuko’s idea to make these ancient dishes available to the public.
As an antique vendor, her father collected many, but sales were slow in the gallery and most of the plates were hidden, their boxes dusting and no one was happy. Atuko thought that hiring them at the tea party would make the family business more prominent than dozens of other tea festivals in Japan.
But her father called the bowls, and he was eager to add details about them. The black-haired one from Belgium was designed for a different purpose, but the tea teacher considered it appropriate for the ceremony.
Or a simple colored bowl with brightly colored circles, squares and triangles on top. It looks like it was made in the 1970s, and you can imagine that the superhero movie Austin Powers drinks from it.
According to Mitusero Okubo, this is what makes it unique – it melts the ancient and the modern. And even though it’s only been around for 50 years, it still costs around $ 15,000.
Atsuko Okubo performs a tea ceremony.
Brad Lenden / CNN
Okubo shows another dish that has been around for almost 200 years. To an untrained viewer there seem to be many flaws; It is not balanced and there are colors.
“Defective man,” says Okubo, and that’s why thousands of dollars are worth the same price for this dish.
Another, shows the current bowl. It’s beautiful, but it’s perfect. It costs about $ 100.
“Perfect for robots. This dish is a robot,” he says.
And robots are replaceable so if the visitor is afraid to throw in a $ 25,000 bowl, this is available. It is also suitable for children, Atsuko added, so they can share the experience with their parents, who do not worry about the risk of several thousand dollars.
Today’s visitors make their choice – a 300-year-old bowl and a 1970s bowl. Atsuco wears a kimono and begins the ceremony.
The tea service was preceded by a sweet cake.
Brad Lenden / CNN
Kneeling at right angles to the guests, she tactfully and deliberately prepared tea.
To get the hot water from the pot, she mixed it with a wooden spoon on a long stick, put it in a bowl, and mixed the tea with the whiskey. The only sounds are the water and the birds singing outside, guided by her movement.
After the visitors serve a hyacinth-shaped jelly and bean curd cake, the tea is transferred to the selected guests’ bowl and served hot.
Following the prescribed ritual, the visitors place their precious bowls with one hand on the side and one hand on the bottom.
The taste is excellent and all-encompassing, so you forget that they have tens of thousands of dollars in ceramics in their hands.
This is experiencing Japan’s best.
As Atsuko carefully placed her utensils and bowls, her father carried them up the stairs carrying gifts for the guests – hand-painted and colorful bowls used by each visitor and the sweetness they contained as well as an explanation of their origin and importance.
Surprisingly, drawing only from memory, Okubo accurately resembles the design of geometric figures on a bowl in the 1970s. It is wisdom on a personal level.
Antiquities dealer Mitsuro Okubo gives lucky guests an original picture of their tea cups and their origins.
Brad Lenden / CNN
It took 90 minutes or more, but when we look back at those tens of thousands of dollar bowls, one cannot help but notice that this is an earthquake and there are often images of broken bowls. And plates shaking from their envelopes.
So?
“This is the first place I come to when there is an earthquake,” Atuko said.
If you go
Gallery Okubo is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm The address is 6-2-40 Yanaka, Taito-Ku, Tokyo, a 15-minute walk from the Nepori Railway Station, which is located on several major railways.
The cost of the tea ceremony is 2,200 yen ($ 16) per person, and booking is recommended.
Top image: Green tea served in a 300-year-old bowl. Credit to Brad Lendon / CNN
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