Tea Gathering at Hamarikyu Gardens

We rented one of the tea rooms at Hamarikyu Gardens, where the Tokyo Tower tea group held its own tea gathering.

I hesitated to write about it, knowing that my students themselves may read this. But, on the whole, I think they earned a passing grade, so I decided to put pen to paper.

The Tokyo Tower tea group’s longest-serving students are now in their fifth year.

Through hands-on practice, they have participated in nearly 80 tea gatherings, held twice a month.

I thought it was about time they were ready to plan and host a tea gathering of their own.

Eight volunteers came together and began preparing from the summer.

As for me, all I did was say,

“There’s a place like this.”

I left everything else to them: setting the price of the tea tickets, deciding how to recruit guests, designing the flyer, organizing the shifts for the day, and even putting together the kaiki, the record of the tea gathering and its utensils.

They did remarkably well.

They made good use of the guests who regularly attend the Tokyo Tower Morning Tea Gathering, promoted the event through social media, and managed to fill almost all six tea sessions.

The kaiki was composed mainly of utensils belonging to the students themselves. I proofread and adjusted it two or three times, and lent them a few of my own treasured pieces whenever something was missing.

I had expected that, exhausted and suffering from jet lag, I would simply sleep in the back of the room.

In fact, however, I spent the whole time behind the fusuma, quietly listening to each of them serve as seki-shu, the host of their respective sessions.

That morning, I heard that the group representative had apparently prepared a kind of cheat sheet, and that most of them were seeing it almost for the first time.

So I wondered how things would turn out.

But surprisingly, nobody spoke too quickly, and nobody stared up toward the ceiling trying to retrieve a forgotten line from memory.

Not bad at all.

And then I realized something.

Their profession is attendant. Every day at Tokyo Tower, they work directly with visitors, guiding and assisting them.

When it comes to hospitality and dealing with people, they are professionals who have had far more real-world experience than I have.

Two years ago, one of my students stepped in as seki-shu at the Morning Tea Gathering when I was unable to attend due to a sudden illness. I thought he performed very well.

Apparently, however, he did receive some criticism afterward.

Tomorrow, the Tokyo Tower Morning Tea Gathering will reach its 82nd edition.

This autumn gathering at Hamarikyu Gardens was the moment when I began to feel that perhaps it was time for me to hand over the role of seki-shu to the next generation.

To all the guests who kindly joined us for what was, in many ways, a rather mamagoto-like tea gathering, I offer my heartfelt thanks.