扉 GATEWAY: SAMURAI TEA CEREMONY 茶道 WITH YOSHITUGU NAGANO SENSEI

Samurai Tea Ceremony (茶道)

YOSHITSUGU NAGANO – https://www.y-nagano.jp/

SPONSORED IN PART BY GLOBUS WASHITSU http://www.nycwashitsu.com/
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Ueda Sōko-ryū (上田宗箇流) is a cultural aesthetic practice, or tradition, of Japanese tea ceremony that originated within the samurai class of feudal Japan. The founder from whom the tradition takes its name was Sengoku period warlord Ueda Sōko. The customs, etiquette and values of the samurai are woven throughout all aspects of the traditional practice of chanoyu, a practice that has continued unbroken for over 400 years.

Yoshitsugu Nagano is the licensed instructor who has the highest rank in the Ueda Soko Ryu of Tea Ceremony. Yoshi-San was born in Ehime and has studied art at Hiroshima City University. Yoshi-San has been studying tea for 7 years and has quickly ascended in the Ueda Soko Ryu, which has 5,000 members and 150 instructors through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and others. A word on the Uera Soko Ryu:ü the Warring States period of Japan(1467-1615) – Ueda Sōko was born in 1563 and died in 1650 (Year three of Keian Era).ü He served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and became the lord of Echizenü Sōko first learned chanoyu from Rikyu and Sōko together established a distinct style of samurai-class chanoyu. Under Tokugawa, Sōko relocated to Hiroshimaü. In 1632 (Year nine of Kanei Era) at the age of 70, Sōko retired from military affairs and devoted himself to the Way of Tea. He immersed himself in a life of crafting tea equipment such as bamboo flower vases, chashaku tea scoops and firing raku ware tea bowls. The current Grandmaster, Ueda Sōkei continues a direct bloodline from Ueda Sōko, the founder of the School.

The art of Chanoyu is a tradition known for the dignified, elegant movements that make up its tea ceremony. This is achieved through moving in crisp, coherent, straight lines, eliminating all unnecessary movements and grounding the movements of the ceremony (temae) in forms found in sword and archery practice; The Tradition emphasises the yin/yang balance in the practitioner which usually results in a more powerful aesthetic for men and a softer aesthetic for women (in line with samurai culture of the Momoyama Period); a tradition that emphasises yin/yang balance, integrating the central nervous system of the body with the breath and utensils during the temae and all procedures in the tea room, the movements in the tea preparing ceremony (temae) are composed of straight lines, and the movements flow with the breath. Performing the ceremony in harmony with the breath and with good posture rejuvenates one’s spirit; the ways of handling the bamboo ladle (hishaku) and purifying cloth (fukusa) are very distinctive in the Ueda Tradition. E.g. The bamboo ladle is handled at different times to evoke the sense of riding a horse in battle, sheathing one’s sword, and handling a bow and arrow; the purifying cloth (fukusa) is worn on the right side of the sash. A samurai’s sword is fixed in the left side of the sashand this side is left free out of respect for the sword.

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