I remember one of the most memorable chakai was at the Japanese Garden in Winter. The snow was softly falling and it was only the host and I. The scroll hanging in the tokonoma read, “Everything’s important, nothing really matters.”
He had opened up all of the windows to the tea house and made tea …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/remembering-winter-chakai/
I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge one of my huge supporters, Barbara Walker. Barbara and I have shared our love for the way of tea for more than 30 years. She and I studied with Minako sensei for 20 years, before she passed away. We help each other with Chado presentations, classes and …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/working-together/
A wonderful day of tea Saturday at the Issoan Tea School. Students celebrated the Star Festival with a chakai put on the advanced class who invited the new students who had never attended a chakai before.
We went through the planning process from choosing a theme, utensils, poetic names, hand made invitations to making sweets.
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Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/tanabata-chakai/
I have some new students and they were asking last week what is appropriate to wear to okeiko? What is appropriate to wear to a chakai?
The short response is kimono is always appropriate to wear in the tea room. I almost always wear kimono, whether I am teaching, or receiving a bowl of tea …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/appropriate-dress/
One of the pleasures of attending a tea gathering are the stories told at the gathering. Putting together how the meaning of the scroll and the choices of the utensils along with the poetic names of the sweets and chashaku make for an interesting time.
Some of my students are beginnning to study the kazari …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/telling-stories/
