🌱 Sorate Storytelling Series Vol.8

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. 

Joining the Omotesenke Dōmonkai Eastern Region USA — 15th Anniversary Event

In 2025, our Eastern Chapter reached a milestone.
With the Iemoto in attendance, about 200 guests came from Japan, the U.S. West Coast, and Hawaii,
and 90 chapter members united to host the celebration.

The venue: Hotel Andaz, directly across from the New York Public Library—
a quintessential New York setting for presenting chanoyu with pride.

As an Omotesenke professor and chapter secretary, I coordinated the event.
Our guiding idea was not to transplant a Japanese gathering unchanged,
but to create a distinctly New York tea gathering.

One answer was clear: the Matcha had to be Sorate.
Sorate served as a sponsor and supplied Kūsui, gracing the milestone.

Kūsui had also been used the previous year at the 50th anniversary of the Northern California Chapter at my recommendation.
There, too, Japanese tea people—including the Iemoto—showed strong interest in New York’s matcha boom.
That matcha is embraced so warmly in a global city gave visitors a fresh sense of pride.

It was an unforgettable time where history, New York creativity, and Sorate came together.

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