Article of the Shohakutei Guided tour
SLF Newsletter (Excerpt from Feb.2018 issue)
A Guided Tour of the Tea House “SHOHAKUTEI” in Kashiwanoha Park for International Students of the University of Tokyo:
Members of SLF’s English Language Team (KSES: Kashiwa Senior English Support) gave the above tour to the students from Austria and Russia on 15th November 2017. As you know, SHOHAKUTE has a noble gate called “Chumon” (middle gate), following the gate in the well-known tea house, “Kankyuan” in Kyoto.
They experienced walking through the Roji (garden pass) divided into, outer, middle and inner gardens with a gate separating the three. And then Nijiri-Guchi (crawl in entrance), forgetting all worldly concerns and discarding their sense of pride, which is the spirit of SEN no RIKYU known as the founder of the tea ceremony.
At the end, they enjoyed Matcha and Seasonal Japanese confectionary in the tatami room facing to the traditional Japanese garden.