ai5 JAPAN. 



years time it grows to the height of a man ; its fc w kaves, at that 

 time are gathered, the flirub cut down, and the moft plentiful 

 harveft is obtained from the vigorous flioots of the fucceeding 



years. 



The leaves arc gathered by laborers, peculiarly brought up 



to the bufinefs ; they muft not be taken by handfuls, but pulled 



off one by one. The trees are not flripped entirely, for there are 



three gatherings in the year. The leaves are forted into three 



parcels ; the finefl, the fmall, tender, primaeval fhoots, are re- 



ferved for princes and great men, and on that account called 



imperial. They are next prepared by drying over the fire in an 



iron pan, and after that rolled with the palm of the hand on a 



mat, in order to fold them. Public laboratories are built for the 



purpofe. All the proceffes are given at large by Kaempfer*. 



Tea is in as univerfal ufe in Japan as in China, and taken 

 two ways. The moft common is fimilar to the European, or ra- 

 ther the mode we learned from the Orient alilh ; but the manner 

 of taking it is attended with the utmoft ceremony. The art is 

 called Sado and Tfianoi. We have our dancing-maftcrs, &c. and 

 in my time M. Vejlris gave letflures to our quality on the manner 

 of eating gracefully their foup. The Japanefe matters are to in- 

 ftrudl in the manner of behavior at tea, how they are to make 

 it, and how they are to prefent it in a polite manner. 



The qualities of tea are as much difputed in Japan as they 

 are m Europe-^ but fuch is the charming infatuation, that the 

 ufe is ftill followed in defiance of thofe who take the fide of de- 

 pretiation in the old controverfy. Kaempfer gives us an excel- 

 lent figure of the plant, in vol. ii. tab. 38, and of the procefs of 



* See alfo Staunton's EmbalTy to China, voj. ii. p. 464. 



the 



