Houjicha Tea Workshop in Rotterdam
The organizer of the Houjicha Ceremony is Marie-Thérèse. I met her at last year's IDP Amsterdam, organized by Shinji Kasema and Andreas Woehle. She has been practicing Medical Shiatsu Therapy, Jin Shin Jyutsu® and Yoga from 1995 to the present. She is familiar with KOBIDO, Gua sha, Traditional Chinese medicine, and AYURVEDA too. She is also organizing events related to these fields. I performed Houjicha Tea ceremony with my sons at the seminar of Jin Shin Jyutsu that Marie organized. My eldest son Asobi talked about the descriptions of tea and Houjicha. He roasted the green tea and produced Houjicha while explaining the power of the scent of Houjicha. He showed how to make it from scratch and got the audience's attention. Meanwhile, Sola my second son, talked about the physical effects of houjicha. I feel that they have gotten used to this kind of task as they have gone through the whole process a couple of times already. The attachments here about the Jin Shin Jyutsu seminar - flyer and report - were made by Marie. Please read them if you are interested. Mr. Hiroya Fujii, an up-and-coming tie-dye master in Kyoto, lent us the kimonos which we wore during the event. We also thank the embassy for lending us the teaware.
I have prepared "Mikumari" as the ritual sweets symbolizing the ties of our human consciousness concerning water, the origin of life.
Asobi is giving a lecture about Houjicha. Please visit the following site if you want to know about Houjicha. https://www.houjicha.net/about-houjicha-ic5eq
While roasting the tea, Asobi let the participants smell the relaxing aroma of the tea.
Mr. Wayne Hackett also tried smelling the roasting tea. You may refer to this site if you want to know the power of the scent of roasted tea. https://www.houjicha.net/the-power-of-the-scent-of-hojicha
I distributed the sweets to all the participants.
For this event, the participants were allowed to choose their favorite tea bowl. However, in the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony, the Tea Master will be the one doing the selection.
Houjicha seems to have been favorably received by the participants.
In Japan, you usually don't drink Houjicha in a matcha tea bowl. However, if I display various types of bowls and let the participants choose a bowl, there are overwhelmingly many people who will choose the matcha bowl.
This is one of the matcha bowls also preferred by Marie's daughter which is bigger and more attractive, according to general opinion. This bowl is courtesy of the Japanese Embassy in the Netherlands.
World-famous Jinshin-jyutu Masters Wayne Hackett and Marie-Thérèse who are the organizers the event. (Click on the underlined name to go to their profile link.)
My sincere respect and gratitude to Marie's eldest daughter Francoise Keune and her friend Madeleine Wouda for taking wonderful photos
