I finally got the pictures from my first tea ceremony. This last April, my tea sensei’s mother, also a tea sensei, had her 25th annual Hanamizuki Chakai. Hanamizuki is Dogwood in English. Apparently, after the gift of cherry trees (the ones along the Potomac, I think) by Japan to the US, the US gave a gift of Dogwood trees to Japan. Ogura sensei really likes them, and donates the proceeds of every year’s Hanamizuki Chakai to planting and maintaining Dogwood trees around Saga.

Anyway, this year they allowed me to make tea at the outdoor tea setting, or temaeza. Here it is pictured from the shade of the guest seating. One of Ogura sensei’s high school students is performing the ceremony. It was a beautiful spring day, not too hot, but the sun was bright, and my white hairless pate turned pink pretty quick.

I was quite nervous and not so enthusiastic when they told me I’d go first that day, but felt better when they said that going first early in the day, there are fewer guests to watch you sweat, so I felt better about going early.

Silly me. Here was the first guest of the day:

 This is Minister (Soumu Daijin) Haraguchi, roughly equivalent in the US to the Secretary of State. What you can’t see in all the pictures are the bodyguards hovering about. One of them was over my shoulder watching me make the tea, I guess to make sure I didn’t put anything funny in it.
He was kind enough to sit by me for a photo.

My teacher, Kawakami Sensei is next to me, and her mother, Ogura Sensei is standing in the rear.
In the pics below you can see the implements. The mizusashi is a collapsed large jar that collapsed uniformly inward. Not so acceptable for a large jar, but easy to make it into a ‘found’ water jar for ocha. This day we used a palm frond as a lid. The lady sitting behind me is Tanaka san, another potter in Taku who just happened to be a student of Ogura sensei. Very nice lady, and a good potter. Though she might not want me to tell, she is one who made the collapsed jar. Don’t tell anybody…

Below is the temaeza that was set up indoors for guests. The mizusashi looks like Hagi Shiro (Hagi white), with a Shinsha teabowl (copper red) A bit more formal…  Kawakami sensei is performing the ceremony with Ogura sensei looking on.

It was a great event and lots of people came to participate and help out. Lots of work and lots of fun.