Nisei Week Tea DemonstrationSaturday, Aug 12th and Sunday, Aug 13th 2023
On August 12th & 13th, 2023, tea demonstrations in conjunction with the Nisei Week festivities were held at Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) in Little Tokyo. Fourteen shachus from the Urasenke Tankokai Los Angeles Association participated and served tea for the first time in four years. A total of 14 tea ceremony demonstrations were performed between 11 am to 3:30 pm on both days. There were more than 350 visitors who were interested in the art of Tea. One of the distinguished guests were Mr. and Mrs. Kenko Sone, Consul General of Japan. The demonstrations were held in the “yojohan” tearoom of the Cultural Center. The Tea room was decorated with a summer seasonal scroll “Taki” which means waterfalls, seasonal flowers in a basket and “Uchiwa” which means fan, an incense container. It was wonderful to have the various shachu presenting different summer temae with a wide variety of dogu and tana. Nobue Kodama, with the help of Tankokai members, prepared chilled mizore-kan, a cooling, snow flurry with gold flakes on a bamboo leaf while numerous tea student volunteers and managers prepared and served bowls of tea for guests in the prepared seating areas. Usucha was “Shohaku” from Koyamaen which is favored by the the 15th-generation Grand Tea Master Daisosho, who turned 100 years old this year. On Sunday, the newly crowned Nisei Week Queen and court stopped by to enjoy tea and sweets. It was exciting to see so many attending every seki on both days.