spilt tea powder

[spiderpig]

The tea used in the ceremony is finely powdered green tea, carried in a lacquered caddy called a natsume, which is shaped like an egg with a flat bottom and top. One day, a student failed to support the body of the caddy, taking only the lid in his hands and the caddy dropped from the height of about one meter directly onto the tatami. The powdered green tea puffed high into the air in a cloud, and tea settled in a green ring on the mat before our startled eyes. Everyone was petrified. In the silence, Sawada (Minoru) asked us, "What is the appropriate thing to say at a time like this?" Nobody could answer. He said, "You should say, 'How beautiful!' "

- Alex Kerr, Lost Japan