nwasianweekly.com
May 26, 2007

Review: The Teahouse Fire, by Ellis Avery. Published by Riverhead Hardcover, 2006.

In The Teahouse Fire, two women, Aurelia Bernard and Shin Yukako, struggle to come to terms with modernizing Japan in late-19th-century Kyoto.

When newly orphaned Aurelia arrives in Japan with her missionary uncle, she decides to change her fate. She runs away from the church one night and finds herself at Baishian, where she meets Yukako, daughter of Japan’s most honored tea master. Taking Aurelia to be the daughter of a prostitute, Yukako begs her father to adopt Aurelia as a servant for the family. It isn’t long before Yukako secretly teaches Aurelia Japanese cha-do, the art of tea. It is through temae (tea ceremony) that Aurelia learns not only the cultural beauty of Japan but also the importance of preserving traditional custom in a rapidly modernizing world. When Meiji reforms overtake the country and cha-do is labeled by the government as an obscure pastime, the Shin family must resort to new ways to maintain the lifestyle that had supported them for centuries.

Faced with the family’s imminent downfall, Yukako decides to do the unspeakable: Reject traditional custom and teach cha-do to women for money. When the Mountain, Yukako’s father, discovers that his daughter has been secretly instructing a geisha in the tea ceremony, a practice reserved solely for well-born men, he effectively banishes Yukako from the family. Afterwards, Aurelia and Yukako must find other means to adjust to the rapidly westernizing culture of 19th-century Japan.

Fascinating in its portrayal of Japan at a crucial time in history, The Teahouse Fire is a touching story of friendship amidst great cultural transition. —By Paul Kim

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