Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstration and Tradition

Chado, also known as chanoyu and commonly known in English as the Japanese Tea Ceremony, is a spiritual and aesthetic disciplline for refinement of the self. The word chado means "the way of tea." This program will feature two practitioners of the Urasenke tea tradition: Liz Pfeiffer and Dean Olson. The Urasenke Foundation is one of three tea schools which have a direct lineage to tea master Sen Rikyu (1522-1591). Pfeiffer has been studying the Japanese tea tradition since 2007. In 2019-2020, she lived in Kyoto, Japan, as a student at the Urasenke Gakuen Professional College of Chado. She is the lead cataloger at MRRL and will conduct the tea ceremony. Olson has 25 years of practice and teaching in the Urasenke tea tradition. He has a background in Japanese art, literature and history. He will discuss the tea ceremony and the history of the tea schools.

Registration is limited to 25 for those who would like to sample a bowl of tea. Others are welcome to observe the ceremony.