"I have been learning and enjoying cha-no-yu for more than half a century.
It teaches me to behave myself and be sincere to people. At the same time, it has cultivated my sensitivity to nature and art. In short, the tea ceremony has taught me how to live my life right and happily," said Takeya Yamasaki, director of Cha-no-yu International.
This international association was brought into being after the war by Japan's major tea ceremony organizations "to introduce the tea ceremony to the people who came from overseas," Yamasaki said. "If you know the tea ceremony, you know the Japanese mentality, you can get the essence of the Japanese spirit."