Chado Urasenke Tankokai SF Association Rikyuki Tea Ceremony
On Sunday, March 5, 2023, the Chado Urasenke Tankokai San Francisco Association held its annual Rikyuki memorial tea ceremony for the founder of tea ceremony, Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591), at Hokka Nichi Bei Kai (Japanese American Association of Northern California) in San Francisco Japantown.
This event was hosted by Soko Kobara, Distinguished Master (Meiyo Shihan) of Urasenke School, and her students. The day began with flower offerings in the memory of Rikyu. Three seatings of tea ceremony followed.
Soko Kobara explained the scroll with the image of Rikyu koji which was drawn by Mushakoji-senke Wakasosho, So-oku at the age of 13 years old and the calligraphy was written by his father, Mushakoji-senke 14th Oiemoto, Soshu. This was actually a Thank you letter (tamegaki jiku) addressed to the late Rev. Seiji Kobara as appreciation of their visit to San Francisco in 1990. It was later mounted as the scroll.
Soai Yoshikawa served as the teishu (host), Sochi Flynn as the hanto (assistant), and Soei Bartlett, Director of Urasenke Foundation San Francisco, was the first guest during the first seating. Mr. Yuki Arimura, Consul at Consulate General of Japan in SF, and Sojin Hagiwara, the Chief of Administration of the Association, attended this seating as the second and third guests, respectively.
Ruriko Miura served as the host, Soru Kobara as the assistant, and Sokei Wooster was the first guest during the second seating.
Maki Goda served as the host, Soai Yoshikawa as the assistant, and Sokei Wright was the first guest of the third seating.
During the tea ceremony, the guests deepened their thoughts toward Rikyu and refreshed thankfulness for his teachings on the Way of Tea.
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