Frost at Dawn: Kawakami Fuhaku and the Way of Tea

Abstract

This dissertation examines chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony) as a simultaneous path to and expression of Buddhist enlightenment, focusing on a manuscript written by the eighteenth century tea master Kawakami Fuhaku (川上不白, 1719–1807). The inquiry revolves around an essential paradox in both chanoyu and Zen Buddhism: how can one come to know the “Way” when it cannot be explicitly taught? This study analyzes Fuhaku’s manuscript, the Fuhaku Hikki 不白筆記, a guide written for advanced students who have become fully adept at the complete range of skills (waza 事サ) of chanoyu but have not yet grasped its true meaning (hon'i 本意). The dissertation is structured around a metaphor that Fuhaku uses for the three stages of mastery: shu (守), upholding the fundamentals as a beginner; ha (破), breaking the forms once they are internalized; and ri (離), letting go and finding a state of unobstructed naturalness. Through an exegetical reading of the Fuhaku Hikki, this study explores Fuhaku’s distinction between the teachable forms (waza) and the unteachable heart-mind (kokoro 心). It argues that mastery of waza is essential, yet it can lead to attachments to skill and the self, which become the final obstacles to true understanding. Writing in the idiom of Zen discourse, Fuhaku presents the transition from the skillful stage (ha) to that of the master (ri) as a kind of awakening that constitutes Buddhist enlightenment. Ultimately, the dissertation contends that for Fuhaku, chanoyu's true meaning emerges through loss—of investment in illusion, of credence given to erroneous notions of self and other—rather than through gain of knowledge or skill. This loss allows for the recognition of chanoyu as the simple enjoyment of the Way: nothing is separate, yet everything is distinct.