Immersive Tea Ceremony Experience of the Ichibōan Tea House and Roji Path at Nitobe Memorial Garden

Photo by: Christina Cecconi

This May, we had the incredible opportunity to lead guests on an immersive experience through the outer garden (roji) of the teahouse at Nitobe Memorial Garden as the space would traditionally be used. Everyone had the chance to slip into "garden sandals" to navigate the stepping stones, sit in the "waiting arbor," rinse their hands at the tsukubai stone basin, and enter the tea room through the nijiriguchi “crawling entrance.” Our Founder and Executive Director Maiko Behr, an established tea instructor in the Omotesenke tradition, shared insights into the design and cultural significance of the tea garden and the tea house structure itself. Once inside the tea house, guests enjoyed a matcha tea service with a special seasonal wagashi sweet prepared by Saki Fukuda. 

Photos by: Xun Yu 六入處感官美學研習社 The Six Sensorial Lab

The May weather couldn’t have been more cooperative. It was a beautiful day to leave the outside world behind and enjoy the serenity of this special space not normally open to the public. We are grateful to Nitobe Memorial Garden for making this program possible.

This was an incredibly popular program with both sessions filling up almost immediately. In order to offer high-quality immersive experiences like this, group sizes must inevitably remain small. To avoid disappointment, we highly recommend signing up for our monthly newsletter as subscribers enjoy advance access to registration for future programs. We hope to offer more programs like this in future, so stay tuned.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Community Fund of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society.