MAGAZINE

🌱 Sorate Storytelling Series Vol.2

Marie Calfat 12 Mar

Stories that Connect Tea and People — Sorate Storytelling Series
Narration: Keiko Kitazawa (Sorate Advisor / Omotesenke Style Professor)

About Keiko Kitazawa:

She has over 25 years of experience in Chanoyu and has been teaching as a certified Omotesenke-style tea ceremony instructor in New York and New Jersey for more than 15 years, guiding over 100 students, including school programs. She conducts weekly lessons at the private salon, 229 East 49^th Street in NYC and at her private tea room in Closter, NJ, and regularly hosts tea gatherings both in the U.S. and Japan. A founding member of the Omotesenke Domonkai Eastern Region (2008) and its Secretary General since 2019, she graduated from Osaka University of Arts (Design) and the Fashion Institute of Technology (Fine Arts). Keiko views Chanoyu not only as a practice of procedures and customs but as a way of living an aesthetically and spiritually rich life.

Sorate’s signature matcha bears the name “Kūsui”—
a name with beauty and deep cultural lineage.

“Kūsui” draws from a line in the Tang poet Meng Haoran’s anthology:
“空翠落庭陰”—often rendered as the green of sky and trees casting cool shade upon the garden.
Clear sky, verdant foliage, and quiet shadow—
a scene like the vast nature reflected in a bowl of matcha.

Matcha came to Japan with the Zen monks’ drinks from China in the 12th century.
Thus, it is common to name tea utensils and matcha with words from Zen sayings or classical Chinese poetry.
A mei (name) is more than a label; it breathes spirit into tea and tools.

When Silvia asked me to bestow a name on the matcha, I was truly surprised.
In our tradition, we usually use matcha to which the iemoto (grand master) has given a name;
for a mere individual practitioner like me to name a tea felt daunting—yet the highest honor.
I thought hard.

I wanted a word that resonated with “Sorate”—something that suggested SOAR / SKY.
That led me to “Kūsui,” evoking clear sky and vivid green—
a symbol that, even in New York City, connects hearts to nature.
I knew this was Sorate’s name.

Today, a hanging scroll with that line “空翠落庭陰” is displayed in the alcove of the new shop.
I found it at auction and had it remounted in a style fitting for Sorate.
The calligraphy is by the 12th head of the Hisada family, tea masters related by blood to the Omotesenke line descending from Sen no Rikyū,
who have quietly supported Omotesenke for 450 years.
A single scroll in the tokonoma sets the spirit of the tea gathering—
and “Kūsui” clearly points to the path Sorate will walk.