Past Friday and Saturday (July 25-26) the number of teahouses in Seattle area was temporarily increased by one. The "one" was the Floating Teahouse art project brought by local artist Yuri Kinoshita.
I've heard about the event from one of the customers at Tokara Bakery
( www.tokaragashi.com ) and, to be honest, had no idea what to expect from the "Floating Japanese Teahouse" concept. Although, the decision to take the camera with bigger zoom optics was the right one as the main part of the event was happening in the center of a big fountain at South Lake Union Park.
The tea ceremonies were happening on a floating platform-teahouse able to hold the tea master and two guests at a time. Even though the platform was held in place by four thick ropes, the teahouse was still somewhat maneuvering around the fountain, mostly due to wind from the lake.
Each ceremony took about 15 minutes with a 10 minute break in order to let the participants step off the teahouse platform, change the tea utensils, and replenish the water, sweets, and tea.
The spirit of the event was quiet informal: guests of the teahouse were chosen from the audience (at least that's the impression I've got) and there were no dress code.
The process of the tea ceremony was very fluent and natural without a strict formality which is usually associated with the Japanese tea ceremony (this is definitely an accomplishment because Kinoshita-san and her friends were able to stage the ritual itself without making it look artificial in a given environment).
I hope that such events would be happening around Seattle more often as they allow people to get both cultural and aesthetic hands-on experience.
I've heard about the event from one of the customers at Tokara Bakery
( www.tokaragashi.com ) and, to be honest, had no idea what to expect from the "Floating Japanese Teahouse" concept. Although, the decision to take the camera with bigger zoom optics was the right one as the main part of the event was happening in the center of a big fountain at South Lake Union Park.
The tea ceremonies were happening on a floating platform-teahouse able to hold the tea master and two guests at a time. Even though the platform was held in place by four thick ropes, the teahouse was still somewhat maneuvering around the fountain, mostly due to wind from the lake.
Each ceremony took about 15 minutes with a 10 minute break in order to let the participants step off the teahouse platform, change the tea utensils, and replenish the water, sweets, and tea.
The spirit of the event was quiet informal: guests of the teahouse were chosen from the audience (at least that's the impression I've got) and there were no dress code.
The process of the tea ceremony was very fluent and natural without a strict formality which is usually associated with the Japanese tea ceremony (this is definitely an accomplishment because Kinoshita-san and her friends were able to stage the ritual itself without making it look artificial in a given environment).
I hope that such events would be happening around Seattle more often as they allow people to get both cultural and aesthetic hands-on experience.
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