Tamashima’s Deep-Rooted Tea Ceremony Culture
One of Tamashima’s defining features is its tea ceremony culture, which has been rooted here since long ago and remains vibrant today.
We spoke about Tamashima and its tea culture with Noriyoshi Fujiwara of the Kurashiki City Office, and Yuko Kirakudo (Kirakudo Yuko) of Kirakudo, a long-established tea and tea-utensil shop in Tamashima.
First, please tell us about Kirakudo.
Kirakudo (honorifics omitted)
I understand that Kirakudo originally dealt in antiques in Bitchu-Matsuyama (now central Takahashi City).
The family moved to Tamashima in the late Edo period and opened a retail shop selling tea and tea utensils. There is a tea room in the shop, and we hold a tea gathering every Sunday.
Why did tea ceremony culture take root in Tamashima?
Kirakudo
Tamashima’s development as a port town and commercial city was closely connected to its tea ceremony culture.
Trade with Kitamaebune ships and other commerce led to the rise of many wealthy merchants in Tamashima. One reason was that tea ceremony culture spread as one of the pastimes of these wealthy merchants. It is said that many merchant houses in Tamashima had tea rooms.
As people became financially prosperous, they began investing in cultural pursuits. Tea ceremony was a status symbol for successful merchants in Tamashima.
Tea ceremony also helps you focus and forget about other things.
It may also have helped people switch between work and leisure.
Another explanation is that tea ceremony was used by Tamashima merchants to entertain Kitamaebune merchants.
Fujiwara
Entertaining merchants with tea ceremony had an aspect of what we would now call business hospitality. At the same time, I think it was also an important tool for doing business.
Tea ceremony was hospitality itself, and it is said that it began with inviting guests to take a bath.
Tamashima merchants treated their Kitamaebune trading partners with great hospitality. Through tea ceremony, the Kitamaebune merchants may have been assessing what kind of people their Tamashima trading partners were.
If everything is first-rate—from the tea etiquette, tea, sweets, and utensils to the room decorations and tea room—your trading partner will think, “This is someone I can trust.”
Tea ceremony may have played an important role in ensuring successful trade with Kitamaebune ships.
It may be that Tamashima prospered as a commercial city because tea ceremony culture supported business negotiations.
Kirakudo
That’s true. The way someone handles tea etiquette reflects on everything, and I think you can get an intuitive sense of their character.
There is also a theory that tea ceremony culture was brought to Tamashima by Kitamaebune ships.
How popular was tea ceremony?
Kirakudo
At its peak, there were said to be around 400 tea rooms in Tamashima’s port town.
That is a very large number considering the size of Tamashima. The number of tea rooms has declined today.
Even so, Tamashima still has many tea and tea-utensil shops, Japanese confectionery shops, and kimono shops for a town of its size.
This is likely a remnant of the era when tea ceremony flourished in Tamashima.
Is tea ceremony still popular in Tamashima today?
Kirakudo
Tea is still popular in Tamashima today.
Many people who live in Tamashima enjoy tea.
There are various schools of tea ceremony, including Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Yabunouchi-ryu, which carry on the tea ceremony tradition.
Tea gatherings are held almost every month at the Tamashima Civic Exchange Center. As I mentioned earlier, Kirakudo holds a tea gathering every week.
The “Ryokan Tea Gathering” held at Entsu-ji Temple is also famous and is counted as one of Okayama Prefecture’s four major tea gatherings.
In recent years, people have also visited Tamashima from overseas specifically to attend tea gatherings, including visitors from the United States and Taiwan.
Fujiwara
Some kindergartens, certified childcare centers, and nursery schools in Tamashima hold tea gatherings, incorporating them into early childhood education and helping pass on local culture.
I think that’s fitting for Tamashima, where tea ceremony culture is deeply rooted.
Tamashima has also produced a “Tea Gathering Guidebook.” It makes it easy for first-time visitors and those unfamiliar with tea gatherings to take part.
Tamashima’s tea ceremony culture is also fascinating from a tourism perspective.
Tamashima is a remarkable place that prospered greatly through cotton trading with Kitamaebune ships. Experience the tea ceremony culture that spread here and feel the spirit of the merchants of that time.
Kirakudo
If you would like to attend a tea gathering, please visit the tourist information center inside Shin-Kurashiki Station.
Even if you don’t know the etiquette or procedures, we’ll explain them kindly.
We hope you’ll experience Tamashima’s tea ceremony culture, which flourished alongside the development of this commercial city.
The Streetscape of Tamashima, a Thriving Commercial City
Tamashima’s port flourished as a commercial city, mainly through trade with Kitamaebune ships.
Its main imports were herring meal and dried sardines, while Bitchu cotton was its principal export.
The city prospered by using herring meal and dried sardines as fertilizer for cotton cultivation, then selling the cotton and cotton products.
Today, Kurashiki City has a thriving textile industry, including jeans and the manufacture of school uniforms and other uniforms.
The prosperity brought by cotton trading with Kitamaebune ships at Tamashima Port can be considered one of the factors that made Kurashiki City a textile-producing city.
“I hope people will visit Tamashima and experience what made it such a wonderful commercial city. I’d also be happy if they told others about what they enjoyed. I believe that, through these small steps, we can preserve Tamashima’s streetscape for future generations,” says Fujiwara.
Why not take a stroll through Tamashima’s historic streets?
Articles on Kurashiki City’s Japan Heritage
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