I. Essentially, contact with China began when Japan sent diplomatic envoys to the Sui dynasty. Later on, contact with Tang dynasty China increased during the Nara period and reached its peak during the Heian period. As such Japanese ambassadors to China were continually dispatched, in turn bringing back with them some Chinese culture. Buddhism was then introduced and because of that there were now decrees on the taboos of meat consumption, making Japan a fish-eating country at the time. However, aside from Buddhism as a Chinese influence on Japanese dietary culture, rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, noodle making, soybeans and soy products such as tofu, soy sauce and miso paste and most importantly tea which are now considered as staples of …show more content…
Particularly accredited to the Buddhist priest Esei, since on several of these occasions these envoys were accompanied by Japan’s leading Buddhist scholars as such this particular Buddhist priest brought back with him tea seeds which are said to be the origin of tea in Japan. However, tea at this time was extremely valuable and as such were only drunk by the court aristocracy and Buddhist monks/priests during Buddhist ceremonies until the 12th century. It was also the influence of Chinese cultures that brought chopsticks to Japan early in the Heian period. However, they were not used as everyday utensils due to the fact that hands were still commonly used to eat. Aside from that, chopsticks were used only by the nobility at banquets. During the Heian period, a sense of ‘food social stratification’ was also prevalent, seeing as what the nobility ate and what the commoner ate had a stark difference; in terms of selection, quality and …show more content…
However, in a much broader sense of the word, “wabi” is the seemingly-paradoxical kind of perfect beauty wherein it is just the right kind of imperfection. An example of such, is the asymmetry in a ceramic bowl which reflects the value of handmade craftsmanship as oppose to a symmetric bowl which is nonetheless perfect but is soul-less seeing as it may have been machine-made. In other words, “wabi” is simply finding beauty in imperfection or an acceptance of imperfection. The site of the tea ceremony embodies “wabi” in the manner that, just like “wabi,” the tea hut represents simplicity in that it is smaller than 4.5 tatami mats which is exactly the right amount of bare minimum needed for sitting, it also represents a retirement from worldly affairs in that the tea ceremony itself which takes about 4 hours to finish, is a way for the guests to escape the hustles and bustles of