National Rugby Team Visited Tearoom

There is a tranquil tearoom with an exquisite garden on the 1st basement floor of Nagasaki City Peace Hall adjacent to the Atomic Bomb Museum.

We wholeheartedly welcomed Scotland national rugby team to our tearoom.

Actually, the whole Nagasaki City rejoiced welcoming them with full of O-mo-te-na-shi, which means hospitality in Japanese.

Many visitors from different countries with different backgrounds come to visit it and experience the authentic culture of Sencha tea.

This tearoom is run under the auspices of Bunjin Style Chisoku-Kai, which is the only forerunner of the way of Sencha tea.

Let me a little bit talk about the origin of Sencha.

In the beginning of the Edo era, when the so-called isolation policy was still in effect, Sencha was brought to Japan by Ingen Ryūki, a Chinese priest from Fujian Province in China who was invited as chief priest of Kofukuji Temple, as the temple was able to interact with people from other countries through Dejima. The fact makes us strongly believe it was he who founded Sencha-dō.

While Macha has quite a dark color, the same type of tea brought to Japan at that time has a clear appearance. This is one of the biggest reasons why men of culture known as Bunjin were absorbed in it.

On the contrary to Macha, it is fairly welcome that the guests invited talk with each other and the host during the whole ceremony.