What ichigo ichie means, and why we named an app after it

Ichigo ichie (一期一会, said "ee-chee-go ee-chee-eh") is a four-character Japanese phrase usually translated as "one time, one meeting". The idea is simple and a little startling: this exact gathering, with these people, in this room, on this day, will never happen again. So treat it that way.

Where the phrase comes from

It comes out of the Japanese tea ceremony. The thought is traced to the circle of the sixteenth-century tea master Sen no Rikyū, and it was given its famous form in the nineteenth century by Ii Naosuke, who wrote that a host should prepare every tea gathering as though it could never be repeated, because it can't. Even if the same people meet again next week, they will be a week older, in different weather, carrying different news.

What it asks of you

• Arrive. Be where your feet are, not in your inbox.
• Prepare a little. A host who has thought about the tea, the seat, the light, is saying: you matter.
• Let it be small. The phrase was never about grand occasions. It was about a bowl of tea.
• Don't save it for later. There is no better version of this afternoon coming.

Why it became the name of an app

Ichigo Ichie the app exists for one purpose: to get two people into the same room. You choose a few things you'd enjoy doing with someone, share when you're free, and send one private link. They pick a moment, it lands on both calendars, and the technology steps back.

We chose the name because it says what the product believes. A walk with your sister is not a rehearsal for a better walk some other year. Dinner with an old friend who is in town for two nights is the thing itself. The planning is just the part that gets in the way, so that's the only part we touch.

A small way to practise it this week

Pick one person you keep meaning to see. Offer two things you'd genuinely enjoy and a few times you're free. When you get there, put your phone face down. Afterwards, write one line about what you'll remember. That's the whole practice.