炉のぬくみ
ことば少なに
茶を分かつ
Hearth’s gentle warmth—
with few words between us
we share this tea.
On February 22, Barbara Sōsei Walker and I held a chakai at the Portland Japanese Garden commemorating 45 years of tea together. Barbara and I grew up together in tea, and as my tea sister she is just as close to me as family. I have known Barbara longer than I have been married.
We both started lessons under Minako Sōmi Frady in 1981. Barbara is my sempai by 3 months. I went to go study at Midorikai in 1997 and then moved to Seattle and studied under Bonnie Mitchell sensei and Tim Olsen sensei. I started teaching there. When I returned to Portland, I reunited with Barbara who was teaching in Portland, and we have been doing tea together at various events, chakai, and koshukai ever since.
We can work in the mizuya without speaking words. When I am in the tea room and Barbara is in the mizuya, she can read my mind even through the walls. Together we have served tea to 100 people with just the two of us. We can set up a presentation and mizuya in 10-15 minutes. Over the last 10 years we have probably done at least 300 presentation of Chanoyu all over the city.
For our 45 years together, we wanted to acknowledge people who have taught us, so the toriawase reflected gifts from many sensei. For example, the osayu cups were from Mrs. Henjyoji, the scroll was brushed by Taikyo Nakamura, the tana was a gift from Gregg Tralle. The mizusashi from Gary Cadwallader sensei, natsume came to me from Hitomi Tetsu, Omotesenke teacher in LA. The complete kaiki is listed below.
We both know that we could not have sustained our passion for Chado without the training and help of all of our teachers, sempai and supporters. Okagesama de…
