NPO Kissako Cha Know You
Leaders' Messages
President
Toyoko Nakatani
Soho Nakatani, Omotesenke Master
Kissako Cha Know You started its activities this year（2022）with hope of further spreading traditional Japanese culture through Sado. Please tell us about your interest in tea.
We are ready to travel all over Japan and around the world with matcha（powdered green tea）and sweets in hand if possible. Let’s gather at a tea ceremony, share the spirit of tea, and have some direct heartfelt communication.
We also welcome those who would like to share in our activities. It doesn’t matter to which school of tea , or what experience you have had in field of tea.
Let’s have some tea together!
Vice President
Eiko Miyahara
Eisetsu Miyahara, Tea Ceremony Instractor
My grandparents and parents enjoyed and loved the tea ceremony, so tea has been a familiar part of my life since childhood. Also, my experience of living abroad reminded me how wonderful Japanese culture and the tea ceremony are, and how much they are loved by foreigners as well as by Japanese people living abroad.
Is the tea ceremony too difficult to approach? Please start with enjoying the delicious tea with lovely sweets. That will enrich your life.
Let’s share the enjoyment of the tea with us, NPO Kissako Cha Know You.
Vice President
Genji Iwata
Genji Iwata, Omotesenke Instractor
In Japan, we say "Itadakimasu" and "Gochisosama" as a matter of course but saying these words before and after meals is quite unique in the world. We are surrounded by many world-class treasures, and connoisseurs from abroad were quick to note the beauty of Japan.
C.W. Nicol, born in Wales, UK, was so impressed by the richness of Japan's forests that he settled in Shinshu and devoted his life to the restoration of the Kurohime forests, challenging the trend of nature destruction.
Alex Kerr, a native of the U.S., was fascinated by Kyoto's machiya houses and started a company called "Iori," which has worked to preserve them by proposing a new type of lodging using machiya houses.
Rogier Uitenboogaart from the Netherlands became captivated by washi and set up a workshop called "Kamikoya" deep in Kochi Prefecture, where he creates unique works based on the tradition of Tosa washi.
The world of chanoyu contains many aspects of Japan that we should cherish. In addition to tasting sweets and drinking tea, the usual practice includes hanging scrolls in the tokonoma (alcove), arranging flowers for the tea ceremony, setting up the charcoal for the ro (hearth), and preparing the kettle, fresh water jar, the tea container, tea scoop, tea bowl, waste water container, tea whisk, tea ladle, etc. In addition to these, the tea ceremony also includes the preparation of the tea ceremony itself. For a tea ceremony, food and sake are also prepared. Both the host and the hostess will have many opportunities to wear kimonos. Each kimono has its own traditional techniques, history, and story.
The world of tea is a place where we can approach from any angle these treasures that we tend to forget about.
"Kissako" means let's have a cup of tea.
Let's have a cup of tea and start our search for treasures.
Profile
In 1966, at Hibiya High School, I was scouted to become the head of the tea ceremony club because of my "love of the classics," as I repeatedly enjoyed watching Noh plays and shomyo (Japanese traditional chanting). I joined the tea ceremony club and practiced twice a month under the guidance of an Omotesenke-Fuhakuryu teacher in the Japanese-style room of the Alumni Hall on the high school grounds, surrounded by great works of alumni such as calligraphy by Natsume Soseki, paintings by Yokoyama Taikan, vases by Shoji Hamada. During the summer vacation, we held a training camp at Sounji Temple in Hakone, where we stayed overnight in the main hall, and worked hard to improve the tea ceremony environment, including the installation of a ro (sunken hearth) in the tatami-mat room.
After a 40-year gap, I resumed my tea ceremony lifestyle in 2008. A fellow parent of the local little league baseball team my kids were playing happened to be a Omotesenke Master teaching tea ceremony in my neighbor, so I asked if I could take lessons. With my high school classmates, we formally initiated into Omotesenke, and we have been taking the lessons learning again from the basic rudiments.
In 2018, I received the tea ceremony name "Sogen.” I have been to the tea ceremonies at Daitokuji Temple and Kenninji Temple in Kyoto, and Nanshuji Temple in Sakai, Osaka, as well as participating in Zen meditation practice at Shinshozenji Temple in Fukuyama, Hiroshima and visiting tea houses all over Japan. While working hard at making chawan (tea bowls) in a pottery class, I also devote time to carving tea scoops.
I also devote much time and energy into pottery, haiku, and wine, which I regard as the four sacred treasures of Reiwa era. I spend four days a month making tea bowls, water jars, flower vases, confectionery dishes, and kensui (waste water container), under the guidance of the teacher who is my elementary school classmate. I also write haiku under the name "Zangetsu" and attend a monthly haiku gathering. I joined the membership of the Modern Haiku Association in 2020. My monthly wine dinners have been held for more than a quarter of a century and will soon celebrate its 300th anniversary.
I feel that every path is somehow connected to the world of tea.
In January 2022, I joined the launch of NPO Kissako Cha Know You. We are beginning to take concrete actions, through trial and error, to convey and spread the wonder of Japanese culture that is all around us. As part of the activities, we held a tea ceremony in July 2022 at Afan Woodland in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, in memory of C. W. Nicol, who passed away in 2020. We are also exploring new forms of tea gatherings, such as the plan I have been planning it for some time, "Bring-Your-Own-Bowl Tea Party", where my pottery classmates made and brought their own work and tasted tea.