wood taken from the trimmings of the tea-plant; for this beverage is tea, after all, little as its flavour has in common with that of Bohea or of Uji. Other tea-like infusions sometimes to be met with are kōsen, made by pouring hot water on a mixture of various fragrant substances, such as orange-peel, the seeds of the xanthoxylon, etc.; sakura-yu, an infusion of salted cherry-blossoms; mugi-yu, an infusion of parched barley; mame-cha, a similar preparation of beans. Fuku-ja, or "luck tea," is made of salted plums, seaweed, and xanthoxylon seeds, and is partaken of in every Japanese household on the last night of the year.
Japanese tea, unlike Chinese, must not be made with boiling water, or it will give an intolerably bitter decoction; and the finer the quality of the tea, the less hot must be the water employed. The Japanese tea equipage actually includes a small open jug called the "water-cooler" (yu-zamashi), to which the hot water is, if necessary, transferred before being poured on the tea-leaves. Even so, the first brew is often thrown away as too bitter to drink. The consequence of this is that Japanese servants, when they first come to an English house, always have to be taught how to treat our Chinese or Indian tea, and generally begin by giving practical proof of their incredulity on the subject of the indispensable virtue of boiling water.
Large quantities of Japanese tea—as much as 40,000,000 lbs. in a single season—are sent across the Pacific to the United States and Canada, and a large tea "trust" on American lines has even been suggested. What a change in the course of a single life-time! It is but fifty years since an enterprising widow of Nagasaki, named Ōura, made the first surreptitious shipment of 27 lbs.; for no intercourse was then permitted with the hated barbarian.
Books recommended. The Preparation of Japan Tea, by Henry Gribble, in Vol. XII. Part I. of the "Asiatic Transactions."—Rein's Industries of Japan, p. 100.
Tea Ceremonies. Few things have excited more interest
