Sakura Matsuri, April 2024

Chado Urasenke Tankokai SF Association Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) Tea Ceremony Demonstration

The Chado Urasenke Tankokai San Francisco Association held a Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) tea ceremony demonstration at Nihonmachi Little Friends in SF Japantown on April 14, 2024.

This year’s Cherry Blossom Festival Tea Demonstration was especially poignant: The very first public demonstration of Tea was performed at the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival in 1968, after receiving special approval from Hounsai Oiemoto, with KOBARA Soko acting as Teishu.

This year’s demonstration, jointly hosted by Kobara and Henderson Shachus, provided examples of two very different styles of tea within the Urasenke tradition. In the first two seatings, Kobara Shachu utilized a classic tea room arrangement, using a Yoshino-dana, with host, hanto (helper) and guests seated on floor mats. Henderson Shachu demonstrated a ryurei-style (table tea) of Tea Ceremony. The Ryurei tea was first introduced in 1872 by Gengensai Oiemoto and has become popular recently, as it enables people who have difficulty sitting on tatami mats to participate in Chado.

During each of the well-attended demonstrations, narrators explained what was being said and done, and provided key information about the history and philosophy of Chado for audiences. Following each demonstration, audience members were invited to stay and share a bowl of tea, with over 60 guests able to enjoy the taste of usucha that day.