Incredible tea master from Kyoto #matcha #japanese #teaceremony

Incredible tea master from Kyoto #matcha #japanese #teaceremony

I shared a beautiful moment with a stranger, drinking green tea and eating crunchy Japanese sweets. We learned some memorable lessons and tips on making smooth traditional matcha.

On my 30th birthday, I had a chance to meet an extraordinary woman from Kyoto, Kikuno. She spent a month in Los Angeles, hosting private tea ceremonies, and has traveled the world for two years.

🇯🇵 Kikuno Hyodo lives in Kyoto with her husband, a traditional Japanese wood craftsman (sashimono). A practitioner of tea ceremony for 17 years, she recently began the “Chabako (tea box) Journey,” an initiative to connect people through tea.

Armed with the handmade wooden tea box her husband made for her, she brings a quiet tea experience to people she meets in places around the world as diverse as the Imperial Palace grounds in Kyoto, New York’s Central Park, and Waikiki Beach.

This activity is inspired by Sen no Rikyu, a 16th Century Japanese tea master, whose philosophy of mindfully bringing people together in quiet communication through tea is epitomized by the phrase, ichigo, ichie, meaning “this moment in time will never come again.”

The Kyoto tea ceremony is considered to be around 500 years old. This tradition originated with Zen Buddhist monks and developed into the highly ritualized practice we know today, with the core elements solidifying roughly 500 years ago.