Tea class at San Diego’s Japanese garden marks 5,000th participant

 

Cultural News, 2009 June Issue

 

Tea instructor Soryo Stott continues the monthly tea ceremony and demonstration on the first Tuesday of each month at the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden since September 2001. The May 5 event marked the 5,000th participant (Courtesy of Mme. Soryo Stott)

 

    Tea instructor Soryo Ayako Katayama Stott of the Urasenke Tea School served the 5,000th participant in the school’s monthly tea ceremony and demonstration at the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden on May 5.

 

    The number “five” was prominently figured in this occasion because May 5 is Mexico’s Cinco de Mayo and Japan’s children’s festival along with the welcoming of the 5,000th  participant. The event also commemorated the 155th anniversary of the signing of the Kanagawa Treaty by Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy, opening Japan to the world.

 

    Noting the ceremonial teacup featuring the 150th anniversary artwork of Commodore Perry’s “Kurobune” black ship, Dr. Michael S. Inoue, Honorary Consul General of Japan in San Diego, complimented Mme. Soryo and her assistants, Ms. Junko Kawa, Chizu Kakitani and Takako Nishii, for their continuing contribution to US-Japan friendship through sharing of the art of tea ceremony.

 

   Mme. Soryo started the tea class in the garden in September 2001. Since then, the tea class has been held on the first Tuesday of every month at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the exhibition hall in the garden.

 

   Because the Japanese garden does not have a teahouse, Mme. Soryo brings tatami (woven reed) mats to create a tearoom at the hall for each ceremony and demonstration.  Sweet delicacies, which are served to participants before they drink tea, are often brought by the friends of Mme. Soryo from Kyoto whenever they have had an opportunity to purchase them while visiting Japan. 

 

    On May 5, the tea ceremony was prepared to honor the trade partnership and friendship that was opened by that treaty, featuring the ocean, a ship and the long-lasting the U.S.-Japan friendship as its three main themes.

 

   Mme Soryo, who also heads the Chula Vista Tea Class, explained that the tea scoop art piece, christened “Gifuu (Play with Wind)” was handmade by Mr. Yoshinori Ishii. Mr. Ishii is a member of the tea ceremony group of Mr. Kennosuke Hayashi, a distinguished yacht designer who was the Chief Designer of the “Nippon Challenge,” the first Japanese entrant in the America’s Cup held in San Diego.

 

   The kakejiku hanging was a shikishi ceremonial paper with a poem hand-written on it on July 31, 1941, by renowned social reformer Rev. Toyohiko Kagawa, who was sent to the U.S to meet President Roosevelt to avert the U.S.-Japan war, but failed as Japan invaded Vietnam in 1941. The hanging was read as, “Leaving my sorrow behind/ I will cross the Pacific Ocean/ Keeping my heart/ The tie of Peace.”  Kagawa’s poetry on the wall hanging was brought from Japan to Mme. Soryu twenty years ago.