The Japanese Tea Ceremony for the family
September 15
Time: 2:00 – 3:30pm
$50 per person
Workshop participants will get a 10% discount on any purchase made in the gallery on the day of the workshop.
Sign up for the workshop here
The Japanese Tea Ceremony, or the Way of Tea, cultivates the principles of appreciation and respect in personal relations through the choreography of Tea Ceremony. In this workshop you will be one of the performers in a pleasant drama that acts out these values. The workshop will also introduce you to aesthetics in the artifacts of the tea ceremony.
No Gate Tea: No Gate Tea has been giving classes, workshops, demonstrations and presentations at various venues in the Bay Area since May 2015. Since January 2016, BDK America has generously sponsored 6-weeks long courses, child/parent classes, and themed workshops. The purpose of No Gate Tea is to make the practice of the Japanese Way of Tea available to a general audience in a relaxed manner. We don’t represent any particular tea school and we welcome all schools. No Gate Tea’s practice focuses on the choreography of tea ceremony as mindfulness rather than ‘doing it right’.
Yufuko K. Galbraith: the Japanese Way of tea has been a part of Yufuko’s life since her childhood. She studied Ura-senke school and Yabunouchi school of tea in Kyoto. She currently practices with the Omote-senke school of tea in Berkeley. At No Gate Tea, she teaches the Way of Tea as a mindfulness practice focused on its founding principles. She also teaches classical yoga & meditation and Japanese flower arrangements, and Japanese language and Buddhist text translation.
David Galbraith: Dr. David Galbraith is a lawyer, philosopher, writer and artist. He is a keen student of the aesthetics of austerity and mindfulness in everyday life. He has taught philosophy, law and design at universities in Britain and the United States. At No Gate Tea, he gives lectures on history and the aesthetics of the Japanese Way of Tea.
This workshop is appropriate for everyone. No experience is needed. It is taught from chairs. It will be taught in Japanese and English.
- Class Agenda
- We introduce to the Tea Ceremony with a short tutorial on how to hold a tea bowl. Then we describe the basic practice of being served in the Japanese Way of Tea setting and review the action of the tea ceremony. The introduction includes a handout of the screenplay of the ceremony that we have developed.
- Next is the ceremony itself in simplified form.
The guests are be served a tea sweet. The tea sweets reflect the theme of the tea ceremony or the season.
Then we will serve a bowl of tea for each guest, using the screenplay the guests’ participation in the Japanese tea ceremony.
- We end with a time for remarks and questions.
