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Chanoyu Club Takes Field Trip to Yushima Tenmangu
On Monday, LUJ Professor Ruth Sōshin Lionberger and the Chanoyu Club traveled to Yushima Tenmangu, part of a field trip that included visiting several tea stores as well picking up a few kinds of teas and sweets for the club to continue practicing on the LUJ campus.
Yushima Tenmangu is a shrine located just south of Ueno Park. The shrine honors the spirit of poet and scholar Sugawara no Michizane (845 – 903), who lived during Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1005) and has become known in the Shinto religion as the “god of learning.”
The shrine, a beautiful sight in February during plum blossom season, is also where some high school students go—especially in January and February, when most entrance examinations occur—to pray in hopes of achieving their academic goals.
Chanoyu, or “the Way of Tea,” also dates as far back as the Heian Period. Professor Lionberger has been studying Chanoyu for over two decades, and Sōshin is her official tea name, achieved in 2010. Her four-credit class, Chanoyu: The Way of Tea, will be offered in Spring 2024, and consists of a weekly two-hour practice session as well as a two-hour lecture.
