Chanoyu as inspiration

Chanoyu, “hot water for tea”, is one of the creations within Japanese culture that because of its long history, constant adaptation, variety of performed functions and purposes, reveals itself as hard to analyze and enclose in well-defined depictive frames. It is, although not exclusively, a ritual, a performance, an art, a philosophy, a hobby, and a kind of a close at hand, common day hierophany. A phenomena that never ceases to provoke, teach, tempt, and inspire. In the article I discuss examples of how chanoyu, one of the arts reffered to as Japanese "traditional culture" can inspire today—within Japan, as well as abroad.