Nearly five hundred Urasenke tea people, including first and foremost former Urasenke grand master Dr. SEN Genshitsu, were gathered in Mexico City from September 22 to 26, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Urasenke's official presence in Latin America.
This was not long after Urasenke's world convention of 2001 in Hawaii, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Urasenke's first overseas chapter, which Dr. Sen (then known by the title and name Wakasosho SEN Soko) inaugurated during his extended tour of Hawaii and the US mainland in 1951, and the convention organized by the Urasenke Tankokai Los Angeles Association in 2002, commemorating the jubilees of the chapters which he inaugurated on the mainland in 1951. His first visit to South America and Mexico was in 1954, and it was then that the Urasenke Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Mexico chapters were founded.
For the Urasenke celebration in Mexico, Dr. Sen's sister SHIOTSUKI Yaeko and nieces KUMAGAI Emiko and GOTO Reiko flew in from Tokyo. Heading the staff of seven from the Konnichian corps of deputy tea masters (gyotei-bu ) were IZUMIMOTO Soyu and SHIRAHASE Soko, the latter of whom served as Konnichian's official resident tea instructor in Peru from 1981-91. The convention registrants included nearly 190 Urasenke Tankokai members from Japan, including 58 Urasenke International Association (UIA) members, as well as two who traveled all the way from Indonesia and one from Singapore. The directors of all seven Urasenke Foundation branches in North and South America, and of the Hawaii branch and the branch in Dusseldorf, Germany, also were present.
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