Tea Room: Sangyoku

Three years ago, we bought an old farmhouse. Hundreds of silkworm foils (baskets for keeping silkworms) were still there. In addition to the main house, which was rebuilt in the Showa period (1926-1989), there was a large field, many barns, and a magnificent, but crumbling warehouse. On the staircase of the storehouse were the words “Ansei 5 (5th year of the Ansei Era). At the time when the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity and Commerce was concluded and Ii Naosuke was conducting a fierce purge of the “San’ou Joi” (the Emperor of Japan’s foreigners), a beautiful, large white storehouse was quietly completed in this land far from Edo (old Tokyo).

I thought about the long history of sericulture, which has taken root in this land since ancient times and supported people’s lives until the end of the Showa period. I thought of the white threads spit out by the silkworms that were transformed into tanks and guns. I thought of the countless silkworms that grew up and died on this bamboo basket. I thought of the lives of the people who shared the fate of the silkworms.

Taking all of this into consideration, we made a tea room with the silkworm foil, which is imbued with the memories of this place. Our dedication and prayer for the event can be translated to: “The circle is the same as the void (the universe), and there is no lack and no excess. The tea ceremony will be decorated with a million-tower incense container, and prayers will be offered to the spirits of the silkworms.”

Date: September 2023

Venue: Kongoji Temple, Gunma

Tea Master: Fuyuko Kobori

Artist: Kjell Hahn

Photo: Kjell Hahn