2023-06-30 Shaon Chakai

June 30, 2023

Things that I want to take away from the chakai:

• There must be an overall cho. Someone needs to be at the top to make final decisions.
• There must be a mizuya cho to decide how the flow goes. Even if not everyone agrees with the way the cho wants to do things, monkey together strong.
• There should be someone sitting at the entrance to the chashitsu directing people where to go, keeping track of which bowls have been served where, etc. Otherwise, hakobi people need to enter the room and make a quick judgment on where to go, which is really hard to do accurately without taking a lot of time and looking awkward.
• Taking out one bowl at a time for return to the mizuya is much better if possible, but two at a time isn’t that bad.
• Inside the mizuya, having a flow is really nice. We put together two long tables.
  • On one half: in the middle was the oyu, then the bowls.
  • On the other half: washing station toward the end, etc.
  • On the short end of the table facing the chashitsu: hakobi people stand to take in and out.
  • Bowls flowed from one half, to the short end for serving, to the washing station on the other side, and back to the ready section.
• For cleaning:
  • One or two tubs of mizu, one tub of oyu.
  • Start by dabbing the bowls with tissue to avoid dirtying the water too much. Then, wash in mizu, then dip in oyu to speed up drying.
• Serving sweets on a tray:
  • We served sweets on kaishi. Two options: one, hold the tray out for people to take, then scoot down and repeat. Two, place the tray down (in the direction you’re moving, not below) and place yourself to the guest.
  • We did the first, but really it’s rather awkward to explain to the guests what to do. Plus, it makes the guests fumble with the sweet, so I don’t love it. As awkward as it is to deal with the tray, it is much better to serve the kaishi from the tray, then bring it with you and serve.
• Everyone’s jobs don’t need to be pre-decided (ie, tatedashi people vs hakobi people vs cleaning people), but everyone’s time slots should be pre-decided. Specifically:
  • Lunch slot
  • Break slot
  • Seki slot (if they’re participating in the chakai themselves)
• Have gomi-bags, tape, all that kind of thing that you don’t really think about — think through that stuff. Towels, paper to lay down on the table, whatever.
• Bring mizuya chashaku for scooping (the wide one where you single-scoop)
• Bring cards to stiffen kaishi for serving if placing okashi on kaishi
• For misonodana / washindana / etc, it’s nice to start with everything there. Ending, I think you should take out the kensui (but leave everything else)
• At uketsuke, if there are multiple seki, tell people! (Make sure expectations of the overall flow are made clear at the beginning)
• Make sure someone is in the room when the guests enter to guide them to where to sit. This avoids the douzo game, and also avoids awkward seating if the shokyaku sits in the wrong place.
• Women should put their kobukusa geza, not R (confirmed by Ishikawa and her chadouka douhai)

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