Category: Events

On September 23rd, Urasenke Sydney volunteers from Sydney (Yoshiaki Matsunaga, Ryoko Freeman, Itoko Inoue, Emiko Shirato, Taeko Pegios, Tomomi Nakaya, Takeshi Shibata, Kana Ide), Newcastle (Robert Davies) and Canberra (Kyoko McKay, Takako Mizogami, Lee Walsh, Sachiko Inuzuka, Jayde Ohashi, Nobuyuki Ohashi presented the Japanese Tea Ceremony at the Japanese Garden in Cowra for the Sakura Matsuri Festival. Fortunately, we had a gorgeous day (maximum 21.3oC) after a few days of hot weather. The tea ceremony was very successful. Shuichi Tokuda, Consul-General of Japan in Sydney, with his wife and Yukihiro Ohira, the director of the Japan Foundation attended. However, we had fewer guests, about 160 guests, compared to last year’s 219 guests. Possibly it was because of the recent hot weather, or possibly because the cost of admission was raised to $10 this year.
Anyway, the guests enjoyed our performances and beautiful matcha with handmade Japanese sweets. Our range of sweets was greatly increased and improved by the addition of Mrs Matsunaga’s okashi, which were very popular! When some members were performing the tea ceremony, other members were working hard in the kitchen making yakisoba (stir-fried noodles), so all members were busy. As the Association does every year, the profit will be donated to The Japanese Garden in Cowra.

October 16th 2022, Japanese Tea Ceremony in Royal Botanical Garden.

June 9th 2023, Kencha is a ritual tea offering performed on a special occasion, often accompanied by prayers and wishes for peace.

June 8th 2023, appreciation dinner. Dr Sen has supported the development of chado groups in Oceania ever since visiting Hawaii in 1951. His mission has been the pursuit of peacefulness through a bowl of tea.

On Friday 23 September the Canberra Group performed a tea demonstration at the Embassy of Japan.  The tea demonstration was part of a reception called “Spring Festival.  The guests were greeted by the Spring cherry blossoms which are now at their best in garden of the Ambassador’s residents. 

There were three sittings of 10 guests at each demonstration using misono tana.  Our ceremonial scroll features a tanka from ‘Manyoshu’ which cerebrates the arrival of spring.  Accordingly, the sweets prepared by our group members to serve on the day were called ‘haru no irodori’ (春の彩).

There were other activities inside and outside of the residents, with many people showing interest in the tea demonstration.  Those people who could not find a place to sit on the 10 chairs, stood behind the chairs and watched with great interest. When each demonstration finished the guests and the other audience members spontaneously applauded. Among the guests was Ambassador Yamagami and his wife. 

Each teish, hanto, the MCs and all the mizuya helpers did a wonderful job so that everything went very well. 

On September 24th, we presented the Japanese Tea Ceremony in the Japanese Garden in Cowra for Sakura Matsuri. Luckily, the weather was beautiful as it had been raining the night before and drizzling in the morning. The event was extremely successful, we had the highest numbers of visitors setting a new record, 219 guests came to our chado demonstration, including Mr. & Mrs. Tokuda, new Consul-General of Japan and Mr. & Mrs. Shono, Director of  the Japan Foundation. We also donated the funds on the day. Our legendary Mrs. Matsunaga who made the okashi saved us from running out of sweets! Canberra groups came to support this events a well.