Tea activities in San Francisco Bay Area

[Saionji Shonagon]

www.hakone.com/events/upcoming-events.html

12th Hakone Annual Chakai (Tea Gathering)

Sunday, October 28, 2012, 11 AM - 5 PM, Hakone Gardens, Saratoga, CA


This event draws tea practitioners from all over the state and occasionally even international visitors.

Every year students of Omotesenke, Urasenke and Mushanokoji Senke and occasionally other traditions, host tea gatherings in various tea houses and locations around the garden.

Some of these offer thick tea and most thin tea, Koicha and Usucha, as well as traditional tea sweets.

It is a great opportunity for those who practice the way of tea to gather and share their art.

Also for those interested in Japanese culture it is an opportunity to sample this art that is such an important part of traditional Japan amongst so many who are students of the art and at a venue and event otherwise impossible to experience outside of Japan.

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japanese.sfsu.edu/current-event

Ocha Zanmai
2012 San Francisco International Conference on Chanoyu and Tea Cultures
Friday, November 9 and Saturday, November 10, 2012
Co-sponsors: San Francisco State University and the University of San Francisco
The Scope of the Conference

Ocha Zanmai: San Francisco International Conference on Chanoyu and Tea Cultures (SFICCTC) is an interdisciplinary conference that presents the latest research findings and significant work in the study of chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony), including various aspects of chanoyu culture as well as tea cultures of countries other than Japan that contribute to furthering the understanding and enjoyment of chanoyu. Scholars, researchers, tea masters of various schools, museum curators, professionals, artists, and other individuals whose work concerns the fields stated above are all welcome to present at SFICCTC. This is the inaugural SFICCTC and the very first academic conference on these topics to be held in our beautiful metropolis on the Pacific Rim, renowned worldwide not only for the Golden Gate Bridge, but even more so for its rich and vibrant tapestry of diverse cultures and peoples. By opening its presentations with Q & A sessions to the general public, SFICCTC provides a forum for meaningful exchanges between presenters and the audience that is expected to include — in addition to presenters’ peers —college students, tea ceremony practitioners outside of academia, and individuals who are interested in tea cultures.

I've already sent in my registration fee.

[Deleted]

Oct 2, 2012 10:45:02 GMT -5 Saionji Shonagon said:

www.hakone.com/events/upcoming-events.html

Even if you've no interest in Tea, Hakone is a wonderful set of gardens to visit.

[Saionji Shonagon]

The first (of hopefully many, many more) Ocha Zanmai conference was well attended.

Presentations included:

Melissa Rinne of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco on bamboo flower baskets and tea utensils in the museum's collection.

Nobu Kurashige of the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of America on tea gatherings and flower arrangements recorded in Abbot Shosho Horin's Kakumeiki during the Kanei ear (1624=1644). (About a third of the way through, Kurashige-sensei's English failed her completely and she completed the bilingual presentation entirely in Japanese).

Professor Tamaki Yano, Doshisha University, on the historical study and categorization of tea utensils as meibutsu ('named things'). (In Japanese with bilingual Powerpoint slides and handout).

Professor Asao Kuzu, Tezukayama Univrsity on the evolution of Sen Rikyu's development of wabi-cha. (In Japanese with bilingual Powerpoint slides and the best lecture abstract of the bunch).

Graduate student Yoshiyuki Miyatake, Doshisha University on calligraphic hanging scrolls catalogued in records of formal tea gatherings in rapid fire Japanese with Powerpoint slides and a handout that would have benefited by the contribution of a translator with better English skills.) I regret I almost nodded off through this one several times. I blame the excellent bento lunch.

Professor Jennifer Anderson, San Jose State on "Japanese Tea Ritual, Dynamic Mythology and National Identity," examining the practice from an anthropologist's point of view.

Professor Jae Sup Pak, currently at UC Berkeley, on Korean Tea Ceremony. Good overview of tea in Korea (in English). I did not stay in the jam packed seminar room for the demo as it was impossible to see anything by kneeling demonstrators if one was not in the first row or two.

Despite my lack of Japanese, the use of bilingual abstracts and Powerpoint made most of the presentations comprehensible. Dr. Kuzu's lecture alone was worth the trip across the bay.