Omotesenke Kitayama Kaikan – Tea Ceremony in Kyoto
Omotesenke Kitayama Kaikan (表千家北山会館) is a tea culture exhibition center located near the Kyoto Botanical Gardens (京都府立植物園), Kita Ward, Kyoto, Japan.
Omotesenke (表千家) is one of the schools of Japanese tea ceremony.
Along with Urasenke and Mushakojisenke, Omotesenke is one of the three lines of the Sen family and the head family of the Senke school of tea ceremony, descended from Sen no Rikyu, the founder of the Senke school.
The name “Omotesenke”, literally meaning “front Sen house/family,” came into being as a natural occurrence, because of the location of the homestead of this line of the family in relation to that of the line of the family at what originally was the rear (ura) of the Sen estate.
The name “Mushakojisenke” for the other of the three lines of the family derives from the fact that the family’s homestead is located along Mushakoji street.
The Omotesenke estate, known by the name of its representative tea room, the “Fushin-an” (Omotesenke Fushin-an; 表千家不審菴), was the place where Sen no Rikyu’s son-in-law, Sen Shoan, restored the Sen family’s household in Kyoto after Rikyu’s death. The estate is located on Ogawa street (Ogawa-dori) in the Kamigyo Ward of Kyoto.
There are small stylistic differences between the different schools. For example, the Omotesenke school whisks the tea less than the Urasenke school, creating less foam on the top of the tea.
Also, Omotesenke uses both an untreated bamboo chasen and a susudake chasen, or darkened-bamboo tea whisk, while Urasenke uses untreated bamboo for its chasen or tea whisk.
The Fushin-an estate, where the 3rd generation, Sōtan, lived until retirement, is the home and headquarters of Omotesenke.
The Kitayama Kaikan in Kyoto is a relatively modern Omotesenke facility, where Omotesenke sponsors exhibitions, lectures, and other educational programs for the general public.
Video Source: 京都🍵表千家北山会館【茶の湯🐇癸卯~新春を寿ぐ~】OMOTESENKE~Tea ceremony🍵Kyoto Japan from Kyoto trip TV on Youtube ⁄ CC BY
