Last March 21st, a Senchadō event took place in Madrid, Spain. Our friend Utako Nakamori of Wagashi Utatane hosted Japanese Tea Advisor and senchadō practitioner Junko Kurita for two beautiful workshops on the lesser-known Japanese tea ceremony.
Kurita-sensei is originally from Shizuoka and has been a Japanese Tea Ambassador for many years. She has been living in Hungary since 2000 and enjoys traveling. Years ago, she fell in love with Spain when she walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, carrying her beloved tea set and brewing Japanese tea for the people she met along the way. For this reason, she was especially excited to return to Spain and introduce senchadō.
Our co-founder Anna was invited to assist at the event with explanations and some translation, while Kana, wearing her bright and beautiful orange kimono, supported the ceremony as the assistant.
During the workshop, Kurita-sensei introduced the history of Japanese tea and senchadō to the participants. She then explained the temae – the tea making procedure in a tea ceremony – she would present, along with the etiquette for receiving the tea and handling the teaware and sweets. Finally, she performed a beautiful tea-making demonstration, brewing an exquisite gyokuro from Yame, specially produced for Higashi Abe, Kurita-sensei’s senchadō school. As she conducted the ceremony, she gracefully narrated the story behind her tea set.
Years ago, during one of her trips back home to Japan, she discovered a tea set in a cupboard at her family home. When she asked her mother about it, she learned that it had belonged to her late grandfather. However, as far as the family knows, her grandfather did not practice senchadō. It may have been a gift from someone.
Kurita-sensei asked her mother if she could keep the set and bring it back with her to Europe. It was only then, as her curiosity grew, that she began to learn more about senchadō and decided to pursue its practice. She feels deeply grateful to her grandfather and to that tea set for guiding her onto this tea path, and for leading her to share tea with people across many different countries.
The gyokuro was enjoyed alongside a nerikiri wagashi, specially crafted by Utako to celebrate the first day of spring. After the ceremony concluded, participants had a more relaxed opportunity to ask questions and share their impressions. During this time, they were served a cup of hōjicha from Kyoto, accompanied by a further selection of sweets by Utako, that included castella manju, sakura kohakutou and kinakobo.
What a beautiful afternoon – and what a treat it was to experience a senchadō event in Spain! ありがとうございます Utako-san and Kurita sensei!