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AVANT-GARDE CHA KAI Project “Tea ceremony in New york”
(AVANT-GARDE = Modern, CHA KAI = Japanese for tea ceremony)
(Adopted by “Cool Japan Project” commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)

[ Japanese Version ]

Project Overview

The “Cool Japan Project” is a project that is carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the goal to send abroad traditional culture and pop culture of Japan.
We are taking a advantage of traditional ceramics from local areas in Japan, such as Kasama, Shigaraki and Bizen. Young ceramic artists will develop modern tea utensils through artistic and creative elements. We will use these products to develop luxury designs in the global market.

Our approach is to perform the tea ceremony using modern tea utensils, and in this performance we will focus on not only “seeing” and “touching” aspects, but everything as an “experience” on a deeper level. We will perform a casual and artistic style of tea ceremony using tea utensils which were previously thought to be difficult to use, and we hope to disseminate the Japanese culture to the world.

As a first step, we will hold a one-day-only modern tea ceremony event that is currently under development, in New York (Please see the details of our tea ceremony event below.).

Japanese Tea Ceremony Foundation “AVANT-GARDE CHA KAI”
Shuntaro Kondo

Tea Ceremony event in New York Overview

[ Theme ]
Germination　 [ Hajime no Ippo ～ taking the first step]

In January 2013, Globus Washitsu “Keisui-an” opened in New York.
As one of the tea masters, Shuntaro Kondo was invited to perform a tea ceremony at Keisui-an’s opening party last year.

We will hold a tea ceremony event using the work of young ceramic artists working in the traditional ceramic areas of Japan for the first anniversary of “Keisui-an”. Shuntaro Kondo of “AVANT-GARDE CHA KAI” and Souheki Mori of “Tea-Whisk” will perform 3 tea ceremonies with the hope of planting the seeds about Japanese culture and tea ceremony of modern style.

[Schedule]
February 22, 2014 (Sat)
Each ceremony is limited to 7 seats

　First ceremony: from 3pm to 4pm
　Second ceremony：from 4:30pm to 5:30pm
　Third ceremony：from 6pm to 7pm [ Full ]

[Reception party]
February 22, 2014 (Sat)
Start from 7:30pm

We’d like to welcome you with a Japanese snack and sake served in Japanese ceramics.
The Japanese art director and ceramic artist will also attend from Japan on the day of the event.

[Contact] info@tea-whisk.com

[Artist List]
Ceramic artist
Toshiyuki Sakai [Kasama]
Hideaki Numano [Kasama]
Ryuji Hodaka [Kasama]
Nozomu Shinohara [Shigaraki]
Hajime Kimura [Bizen]
Masafumi Tanaka [Osaka]
Keiko Ushio [Kyoto]
Akihiro Nikaido [Mashiko]

Artist
Tohru Matsushita [Tokyo]

Japanese confectionery unit “wagashi asobi” [Tokyo]
Motohiro Inaba
Rio Asano

Art Director
Fumiyuki Ohkubo

[Special Thanks]
Globus Washitsu http://www.nycwashitsu.com/
New York Chashi-tsu「KeiSui-An憩翠庵」 http://nycwashitsu.com/chashitsu.html
Tea-Whisk Souheki Mori 森宗碧　http://www.tea-whisk.com/
OHANA NY Floral School　http://ohana-ny.jimdo.com/

[ NYC Tea Ceremony (PDF file) ]