Even more aesthetic than the enjoyment of music are the arts of the ceremonial tea (_cha no yu_, “hot-water-tea”) and that of flower arrangement (_ikebana_), both of which up to a short time ago were thought to be necessary acquirements for the cultivated classes. To each of these sciences many schools were devoted. Only the barest sketch can here be given of these subjects to which volumes have been devoted. The tea ceremony to-day is rigorously outlined by complicated rules as to utensils, order of procedure and even as to the subjects of conversation indulged in while in the tea room. Tea drinking was introduced from China in the ninth century and at first was practised by the Buddhist priests for medicinal purposes and especially as a means of keeping awake during meditations. In the fifteenth century meetings for tea drinking were held in groves and gardens. In an adjoining tea house pictures were shown on these occasions which were mainly Buddhistic in subject, and most of them of Chinese origin. Under the great tea-master Rikyū (sixteenth century) the rules of _cha no yu_ were rewritten. From this time on the ceremony was performed in a small house with a low door through which the few guests would have to prostrate themselves for entrance. The most characteristic traits of these gatherings were a close sympathy with nature and a love of simplicity almost amounting to ruggedness as expressed in the tea bowls often partially glazed. Restraint was likewise displayed in the decorations of the room, a simple bamboo flower holder was preferred to the bronze vase, and a hanging picture (_kakemono_) was chosen which would make an equally quiet appeal, such as a branch in the wind or an example of fine caligraphy. The occasion became a time in which to worship purity and refinement. [Illustration: FIG. 7. NOBLEMAN PLAYING THE FLUTE. BY GAKUTEI.] [Illustration: FIG. 8. YOUNG MAN ARRANGING FLOWERS. ARTIST UNKNOWN.]