We can't think about Japanese Culture of the present or the past without the tea-culture. Our life is involved with tea very much. The tea-culture affects our artistic feeling for the forms of things which we use in our daily life, or our actions, and our thinking or state of mind.
The tea-culture means not only the drinking of tea, but includes manners, the idea of MICHI (way of life) and various mental aspects, and it provides a pleasant humanity in our lives. Here it is attempted to analyze the artistic feeling of tea, which is based on the history of tea ceremony, and about the aspects of our life which it formed.
However, it is better first to make clear details about the tea plant, the usefulness of drinking tea, and the history of tea ceremony, just as a formula must be made clear before an experiment is performed.
The paper describes the tea plant, its practical and medical usefulness, and the cultural usefulness toward accomplishments and good taste.
It also explains the history of tea ceremony, also including the above aspects.
Finally the meaning of "things cultural" will be discussed, analysing it's relationship to the artistic feeling of tea and the forms of thing of our life of the Japanese way of life in next paper.