Practicing Tea with a Sincere Mind
Tsutsui Hiroichi

To elaborate upon the phrase in the Namporoku, “Ichi za ichi e” (一座一会 one group, one moment), we can look at Ii Naosuke’s phrase “Ichi go ichi e” (一期一 会 each meeting, only once), as it appears in his Chanoyu ichi e shu. In this work, Ii discusses the attitude with which one ought to ...

Warm Topics for Hot Days
Sen Tomiko, Joko Myocho Daishi

To want immediate gratification is characteristic of modern life—to gain knowledge right now, to possess one’s desire right now. Demands for instantaneous methods and shortcuts are not limited to transportation but come from every field. In contrast, to speak of a ...

Firefly Light
Dr. Sen Genshitsu, Hounsai Daisosho

Uemura Shôen, one of the most renowned female painters of recent times, left behind numerous masterful paintings, many of which had as a theme that essence of the sixth month, the firefly. Among them, I am drawn particularly by the one entitled New Firefly [shinkei], ...

The Desert and The Tearoom
Dr. Sen Genshitsu, Hounsai Daisosho

A conversation between Dr. Sen Genshitsu, fifteenth generation Grand Tea Master of the Urasenke Tradition of Chanoyu, and Hirayama Ikuo, artist, former president of Tokyo University of Fine Arts, and advisor to UNESCO’s panel on the preservation of the world’s cultural assets...

Greeting the New Year
Dr. Sen Genshitsu, Hounsai Daisosho

As we face this New Year I am sure every person, in his or her own manner, has expressed the profound hope it will be a year of security and good health. In my household we welcomed the New Year with the same hopes, by means of long-established customs. At the gray...