🌱 Sorate Storytelling Series Vol.7

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. 

Journey to Shigaraki — Tea Gathering and the Magic of Earth and Fire

Tea bowls made by Silvia and LieElle at Shigaraki Honiwa studio

Silvia, my students, and friends visited Shigaraki in Japan, the home of tea ceramics,
to Kochu-an (Kochū-an / 壺中庵)—
where seasonal tea gatherings are held throughout the year:
like, kuchikiri (opening the year’s new-tea jar in November) or Yobanashi (Enjoy the long night in winter).

We enjoyed a seasonal kaiseki meal accompanied by two kinds of tea.

The following day, we visited the studio and, under the guidance of potter Rakunyu Honiwa, experienced working with clay.
It was a moment to rediscover that the tea bowl—so essential to chanoyu—is born from the power of earth and fire.

This “earth and fire” story continues in New York:
Sorate also offers tea bowls by Sawami Aoki, a Japanese ceramic artist based in NYC—
Japanese technique shaped by New York clay and kilns.
These truly local works are one of Sorate’s unique charms.

Swami’s ceramics