On Friday, June 2nd students enrolled in the KU-EOL Japanese Arts course attended a guest lecture on Japanese tea ceremony by Dr. Kinuko Takahashi, a professor in the Faculty of Foreign Language Studies at Kansai University. Besides researching and teaching applied linguistics, she has also been actively studying and teaching on Japanese tea ceremony of the Urasenke school. She also recently co-authored a book titled "Explaining Tea Ceremony Through English Conversations", in which she combines her passion for language learning and Japanese tea. 

During the guest lecture, Professor Takahashi talked about the history and cultural significance of the tea ceremony in Japan. The students also learned about the various tea ceremony utensils, types of tea, and sweets as well as their symbolic meanings. 

At the end of the lecture, the students were treated to a tour of a traditional tea house located on Senriyama campus. This beautiful building is used by students of the Japanese tea ceremony club as well as some of the traditional arts clubs. Assistant Professor Michele Fujii explained about the various rooms and the ways they are used in the tea ceremony.

 

While visiting the tea house, the students also had a chance to see a rakugo performance by one of the members of the Kansai University rakugo club. Rakugo is a traditional form of Japanese verbal entertainment featuring a lone storyteller who skillfully employs props like a fan and a hand cloth while engaging in comic monologue-style storytelling.