Like a gossamer web, drifting in mist, the threads that link Japan's traditional arts can be hard to grasp. Yet some links become visible as soon as a keen observer points them out.
Peter McMillan, professor of literature at Kyorin University, is also a tea-ceremony aficionado. "Of course," he said, pointing out one such thread, "some of the movements in the tea ceremony and the noh theater are clearly similar."
Of course. Just think of the gliding movements of the actor, as he appears on stage, and the host in the tea-ceremony room. Or even the subtle pauses between movements, when the atmosphere unfolds like a bud.