Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

W&L Tea Society to Host Women and Girl’s Day Tea Ceremony

The Washington and Lee University Chanoyu Tea Society will be hosting a Women and Girl’s Day tea ceremony on Saturday, March 7, in the Japanese Tea Room, Senshin’an, located in the Watson Pavilion at W&L. Students will perform a traditional tea ceremony and serve sweets and tea to all.

There will be three seatings: 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Individual tickets for this event are free, but required due to limited space. Tickets must be picked up at the Reeves Center between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., on the Monday through Saturday prior to the ceremony.

For more information, contact Cassie Ivey at 540-458-8034 or civey@wlu.edu. For more information about the tea room, see http://tearoom.wlu.edu

W&L’s Tea Room had its grand opening in 2007 and serves as a classroom and cultural laboratory where students study and practice “temae,” the making of tea, which introduces them to history, literature, art, traditional customs, aesthetics and perceptions of beauty.

In 2011, Sen Genshitsu, the 15th-generation Grand Master of the Urasenke Tradition of Tea, presented the University with the Tea Room’s name, “Senshin’an,” or “Clearing-the-Mind Abode.”

Tea room names are special gifts, as Janet Ikeda, associate professor of Japanese, explained at the time, and W&L’s name coming from such a distinguished personage was significant.