Hatsugama – Urasenke Sydney

14 February 2020

Canberra Group – Hatsugama 2020

Hatsugama report – Canberra Group

Our hatusgama was held on Sunday, 9 February 2020.

12 attendees squeezed into the yo jyo-han tatami tea room. The day began with a serving of home made Hanabira mochi, followed by “nagaita so kazari” koicha temae performed by Kyoko McKay. 9 attendees were served koicha with newly acquired akaraku shima dai chawan. The other three attendees enjoyed koicha in black raku chawan whisked by Mr Shibata.

After Koicha, the attendees enjoyed a ten shin lunch prepared by Mr Shibata and Kyoko McKay.

The attendees separated into two groups after lunch, one group practiced yo jyo han kagetsu and the another group practiced Misono tana with Mr Shibata.
The hatsugama went smoothly and everyone seemed very satisfied.

12 February 2020

Newcastle Group – Hatsugama 2020

Newcastle Group – Hatsugama Keiko report 2020

The first of the New Year gatherings was held at Shizue Sensei ‘s house on the 13th of January. It was hot in Newcastle but a perfect day for celebrating the start of the new year. Five students attended the gathering. Otemae was Nagaita sokazari using Shimadai chawan.

We all enjoyed Shizue Sensei’s handmade delicious Hanabira Mochi.

4 February 202012 February 2020

Hatsugama 2020 – Sydney Ryoko Group

On Sunday, 2 February 2020, we had Hatsugama at Leura.
Hatsugama（初釜) – first tea ceremony of the year.

Sydney Ryoko Group

It was a hot day, the temperature was 36 degrees. Even though 25 people joined koicha. Sachiko did temae and Megumi, Yuko and Irina helped mizuya. After koicha, we enjoyed lovely kaiseki tenshin, cooked by Mr. Shibata with Yoshi and Tamaki. Students separated into three groups. One group studied kazucha, the other did temae with Nagomi-dana and 4 and a half tatami mats’ group did hakobi-usucha. Ms. Toshimori showed Hayami-ryu temae.

11 February 20198 August 2019

Hatsugama 2019

On Sunday, 3 February 2019, we had Hatsugama at Leura.
Hatsugama（初釜) – first tea ceremony of the year.

This meeting is seen as something very special. Hatsugama is the only time when the tea teacher him or herself prepares tea for all her students. In most cases this tea ceremony is a complete Chaji meeting with Kaiseki meal, Nakadachi breaks, and the whole ritual done the way it was learned during classes. It is impossible to teach the whole Chaji at once, therefor it is always broken up into practicing how to prepare Usucha, Koicha, and arranging the charcoal in Sumidemae.