Chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony is a traditional ritual that was started by Sen no Rikyu in the Azuchi-Momoyama period.
The doctrine of this tea ceremony is "Treasure every meeting, for it will never recur;" its main purpose is to welcome visitors.
The ritual has a number of variations in the method of preparing the tea. For example, in winter, a person who makes tea uses a fireplace to keep the water boiling. In summer, he uses a big leaf as a lid of a vessel to direct coolness.
A sweet cake is eaten before drinking green tea[?], in order to reduce the slightly bitter flavour.
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