SEN Genshitsu Conducts Tea Offering Ceremony at UN Headquarters

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Daisosho SEN Genshitsu, on September 21, 2015, conducted a tea offering ceremony and prepared tea for specially selected representative guests of a wago-no-chakai "tea sharing for peace" at UN Headquarters, New York. This event, held as a peace memorial, was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN and Urasenke, and was attended by UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon and Madame YOO Soon-taek, President Mogens LYKKETOFT of the UN General Assembly's 70th session, Ambassador and Mrs. YOSHIKAWA Motohide of the Permanent Mission, and members of the UN Secretariat. It took place in the Indonesian Lounge.

Framed words written by Secretary-General Ban and Madame Yoo decorating the tea offering space.	Daisosho greets Secretary-General Ban and Madame Yoo.

Ambassador Yoshikawa opened the program with words of greeting, and then Daisosho gave a short speech. He mentioned about the main scroll hanging up front, which was in his handwriting and read Heiwa Kinen, or "Prayer for Peace," and the framed words hanging to its side, reading "Peace and Harmony through Tea" both in English and Japanese, which Secretary-General Ban and Madame Yoo had written and signed on their visit to the Urasenke quarters in Tokyo in May this year (2015). Following Daisosho’s speech, Secretary-General Ban presented an address.

Daisosho then sat at the tea-making table (tenchaban), prepared the tea offering, conveyed it to the offering table set before the hanging scroll on which was written "Prayer for Peace" in kanji, and made a deep bow.

For the wago-no-chakai "tea sharing for peace" which immediately followed the tea offering ceremony, Secretary-General Ban, Madame Yoo, Mr. Lykketoft, and Ambassador and Madame Yoshikawa took seats at the front as the representative guests. Daisosho, once again sitting at the tea-making table, prepared the first bowl of tea, which was served to the Secretary-General, and Daisosho's assistants brought out the individual bowls of tea for the other four.

Tea then was served to all the participants, and in the end, many of them came up to talk with Daisosho and shake his hand.

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