The alcove of the Totsutotsusai featured a scroll bearing the words "Wa Kei Sei Jaku," brushed
by the 11th-generation Urasenke grand master, Gengensai. The sweets served this day were the traditional
"Hitchigiri" for Hinamatsuri, the Girls' Day Festival observed on March 3. The water jar was a blue-and-white one
with grape trellis design, which the Grand Master chose for its allusion to the famous vineyards in Greece. As it
was the month of March, the kettle heated over the sunken hearth was a cylindrical one suspended from the ceiling
by a chain.
Following the tea-making by the Grand Master, the guests were shown the elegant red-lacquered
tea caddy which he had used, which contained freshly ground powdered tea made from tea specially procured from
Uji for this day's special guests. Miss Simitis tried her hand at whipping a bowl of tea, which the Grand Master
drank with gusto.
Afterwards, the Grand Master showed the Prime Minister and others to the Tairyuken room, where
two elegant sets of Hinamatsuri prince & princess dolls, and folding screens with paintings of flowering plum
branches by OGATA Korin, were on display. Then, in the Yushinken, he enjoyed chatting with them, and presented
them with special gifts he had readied. At this time, the Prime Minister invited the Grand Master to visit Greece,
and the Grand Master promised that he would do so in the near future.
Before the Prime Minister and his daughter boarded their limousine from in front of the modern
Urasenke Center, the Grand Master showed them into the Konnichian Library at the Center. They had a brief few
minutes to thumb through a copy of the original edition of the BOOK OF TEA by OKAKURA Kakuzo, and showed that
they were highly impressed by the words they found there.
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