Category: Tea (Chado)

Chasen Master Tanimura Tango in San Diego and Los Angeles, May 29th, 30th, and 31st

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Events, Workshops and Webinars Tea (Chado) TANIMURA Tango

Entoten will be hosting chasen master Tanimura Tango to hold demonstrations and workshops in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Friday May 29th: Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum San Diego
Presentation and Demonstration (Matcha and Sweets Included)
Garden Members $50 / Non-members $65
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.
Tickets >> JFGM Presentation and Demonstration

Saturday May 30th: PARU La Jolla
All workshops at PARU include a session to learn about the history of Takayama Chasen and Chasen making demonstration, Tanimura Tango’s preferred matcha from Nara and sweets. Chasen will also be available for purchase for participants.
Chasen Threading Workshop (Sold Out)
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Participant $250 (Limited to 5 Participants)
Tickets>> PARU Chasen Threading Workshop (Participant):

Observer $50 per person (limited to 10 observers)
Tickets>>PARU Chasen Threading Workshop (Observer)

Chashaku Carving Workshop (Few Spots Left)
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Ticket required: $200 per person (limited to 20 participants)
Tickets>>PARU Chashaku Carving Workshop

Sunday May 31st: Japan House Los Angeles SALON, Level 5 (Sold Out)
Presentation and Demonstration (Matcha and Sweets Included)
1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Tickets >>JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles

Kitamura Tokusai in San Diego and Los Angeles April 19th, 20th, and 23rd

By:
Events, Workshops and Webinars KITAMURA Tokusai Tea (Chado)

Entoten is delighted to announce that we will be hosting Kitamura Tokusai Fukusa Ten, Kyoto’s silk textile maker for practitioners of tea, in San Diego and Los Angeles this spring.

Mr. KITAMURA Tokusai IX

Kitamura Tokusai of Nishijin, Kyoto, has been making silk cloths, or fukusa, for practitioners of tea since 1712. Their elegant textiles are among the finest woven silk fabrics available in Japan and are made by highly skilled weavers in Kyoto’s historic Nishijin area that has been the main center for textile production in Japan for over a thousand years. Kitamura Tokusai’s inventory of fabrics features over 400 patterns of historical significance, many of which were expressly favored by the founders and most prominent devotees of Japan’s tea culture.

Kitamura Tokusai is testimony to how Japanese tea culture, a unique art form, has helped sustain dedicated craftsmen and preserve numerous traditional crafts in Japan and beyond for the last 400 years.

 

—San Diego—-
Fukusa Sale and Special Ordering Event
[Saturday April 19th]
at PARU La Jolla  7441 Girard Ave Suite B, La Jolla, CA 92037
11:00am – 4:00pm
Sale and order of various fukusa and kobukusa, Special order dashibukusa (Omotesenke), sukiyabukuro, shifuku. Sale of sweets by Kyoto’s Shioyoshiken

Presentation by Mr. KITAMURA Tokusai IX & Tea Demonstration
[Sunday April 20th]
at Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum  Inamori Pavilion 2215 Pan American E Rd, San Diego, CA 92101

Purchase tickets from the link below

First Session 11:00am – 12:30pm
Second Session 1:30pm – 3:00pm

A bowl of matcha tea and seasonal sweet will be served to all participants (Member $25 / Non-member $35 Garden Admission is not included)

Overglaze pottery by DOI Makiko with Tokusai’s fukusa design

Pottery with Tokusai’s design by overglaze artist DOI Makiko will also be on display.

Hana Shobu Nerikiri Wagashi by Terumi Koga of CalVegan Wagashi

Sakuramochi Domyoji and Chomeiji by Terumi Koga of CalVegan Wagashi

Japanese Sweets by Terumi KOGA, WaSweets
Author of CalVegan Wagashi
See Terumi’s Profile on INSTAGRAM

—-Los Angeles—-
Presentation and Talk by Mr. KITAMURA Tokusai IX
[Wednesday April 23rd]
at Japan Foundation, Los Angeles 5700 Wiltshire Blvd, Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90036
7:00pm – 8:30pm
<This event is free and open to the public please register from here>

Letter to My Nephew

By:
Tea (Chado)

Dear Nephew

You grew up in Japan and I grew up in other parts of the world. I grew up in different societies where individualistic self-expression is far more valued than working with others and conforming to what everyone thinks. Nowadays I think the value is shifting in that direction in Japan also.

When I was your age, I felt that Japanese tea, chanoyu, symbolized everything that was suffocating about my Japanese identity. Wearing a kimono made me feel overly feminine, for example. Sharing tea with others under rules seemed silly and in conflict with my individualism, so I tried to stay as far away from these “traditions” as possible.

Now, 30 years later, I know that I was wrong. The Japanese Way of Tea is profound and revealing because it is actually an active exchange of independence and togetherness. Through Tea, I discovered that our true colors appear more clearly when we work with others. It sounds paradoxical but, ultimately, you can’t be a good guest or host in Tea if you’re not creative or individualistic. You have to become part of the sustaining whole, while staying individualistic.

So Thank you for your tea today. I will never forget this day.
I know that you may not be able to continue practicing, being a college student and learning the way of life, on top of all the opportunities and distractions that you encounter.

But you don’t ever have to quit. Go back in whenever you want to. The tearoom is always open to you.

May 2024
Kanazawa Ai

Myoju Tanagokoro ni Ari 明珠在掌 on the scroll which means, “Your treasure is already in your hand”.

Tsutsu Tea Bowl, Ohinasama Dolls, and the Rhythm of Seasonal Delight

By:
Topics Tea (Chado) Mitch IBURG

Ceramics by Mitch Iburg in our shop ->

During the month of February, a narrow and deep tea bowl called “tsutsujyawan” is used to prepare thin tea in Chanoyu, the Japanese Way of Tea. The word tsutsu means cylinder, and I was told that the reason for using this type of tea bowl, whose design makes it near-impossible to whisk and create good foam, is to retain the heat of the tea so that guests can enjoy it hot at the coldest time of the year.

Although I’m skeptical how effective the shape is for keeping the tea hot, the tsutsu tea bowl symbolizes “mid-winter,” and also implies that spring is just around the corner. And getting people into the spirit of the season through the use of seasonal utensils is an important aspect in Chanoyu.

Deep tea bowl by Mitch Iburg

Thinking about tsutsujyawan made me a little sad because I realized that I have not been able to practice tea with my teacher for the past two years because of Covid. Another year will pass before I’ll be able to prepare tea in her beautiful Mishima tsutsujyawan, an ash glazed bowl with white slip inlay decorations that comes out of a little paulownia box only once a year.

I’m surprised to catch myself feeling this nostalgia because, when I was growing up, I thought all this seasonal stuff was such a waste of time, especially the Ohinasama dolls decorations that come out of boxes in February to celebrate Girls’ Day on March 3rd. Families with daughters display dolls depicting a married couple in celebration of the Peach Flower Festival, which is also known as the Doll festival.

My parents originally had a simple Ohinasama comprised of a dressed-up couple already glued in position side by side in a glass case with a fitting box. Then my mother won a spectacular nanadan kazari (seven-tiered Ohinasama) in a giveaway by a radio station in the late 1970s. I still clearly remember the day she won it. We were having breakfast before going to school when the radio host started reading a letter from a mother of three daughters who could not afford a nanadan kazari…, at which point my overjoyed mother screamed, “that’s me!”

A few months later, several large boxes arrived at our house containing the nanadan kazari. The decoration was huge with a total of 15 dolls, equipped with miniature furniture for the bride, and because it took up most of our living room, it was totally incongruous. We were all excited to decorate them for the first few years, then gradually lost interest, except my mother. Her enthusiasm for the hard-won Ohinasama continued and she insisted that we take the whole set to Singapore when my father was transferred there for work several years later.

Nanadan Kazari Ohinasama in Singapore in the 1980s

Year after year, the Ohinasama came out of the boxes in tropical Southeast Asia and went back into the boxes promptly on March 4th. This is due to the superstition that daughters will not be able to get married for a long time if the dolls are left out past March 3rd. I think I was not alone in questioning if a happy and early marriage should be my primary goal in life, but more than that, I dreaded the task of boxing and unboxing these dolls and wished that they stayed in their boxes forever.

These days the Girls’ Day spirit of the season does not arrive unless I step up to the task of taking out the Ohinasama. My older sister in Japan inherited the nanadan kazari for her daughters, but whether they are out of boxes right now is unknown and I dare not ask.

Amazake, sweet beverage made from rice and malted rice; and sanshokudango, three-colored mochi sweets are some of the foods eaten for Hinamatsuri. I have yet to meet a child who likes amazake.

When I pull out my own little Ohinasama and put it on a shelf, I think back to the time we decorated the nanadan kazari. We could never remember where all the dolls went, and it was fun figuring them out with my sisters. Many friends came over to our apartment to take pictures in front of the dolls because few people had such a display. Over the years, the Ohinasama evolved into a marker of the coming of spring and its subsequent gatherings.

Which brings me back to my Tea teacher’s tsutsujyawan. The winter tea bowl is just one example of many utensils that are taken out and put away throughout the year, just as with my family’s Ohinasama. Like Christmas lights in December, these symbols give support to the traditions that anchor us and provide stability and comfort. I think that perhaps the Way of Tea is also a training in resilience to repeat these traditions. Through the simple act of preparing tea, we are learning to step up and to bring people together. I’m keenly looking forward to resuming the practice with my teacher, which shouldn’t be too far away now. She has been hanging the lights patiently for over 50 years.

Entoten Fundraiser for Mingei International Museum with Limited Edition Tea Whisks by Tanimura Tango

By:
Mingei Tea (Chado) TANIMURA Tango

Mingei Museum Fundraiser Tea Whisks by Tanimura Tango in our shop ->

Museums play a major role in defining a city, and as I await the reopening of the Mingei International Museum on September 3rd, 2021, I have never been as excited for San Diego as I am now.

The reason for my anticipation is because I dream of San Diego becoming a city where people deeply appreciate the social and spiritual significance of craft, and with the fresh energy of the revitalized Mingei Museum, it will become a destination for people in search of design and craft inspirations. I would also like to believe that it is no coincidence that I live in a city where the only Mingei museum outside of Japan is located.

New entrance to the Mingei International Museum from Alcazar garden, Balboa Park

The Mingei International’s management, headed by director Rob Sidner and aided by architect Jennifer Luce, designed the new museum with an open ground floor. It is intended to become a “living room” for Balboa Park where representative objects from the collection will always be on view, free of charge, for anyone to experience craft from many cultures. The space will also be equipped with a café, bistro, and shop: Becoming a museum that serves as a place for people to gather, eat, and drink or to simply be.

Photo of the ground floor of the Mingei International Museum during construction in June 2021. The Margaret A. Cargill Commons aka “The Commons” will have multiple entrances and will be free for all visitors to the park.
Photo Courtesy of Mingei International Museum

Featuring careful use of materials and excellent craftsmanship within the fabric of its design, the newly renovated museum will be an important addition to our local community and cultural identity. But the cost to pay for this grand transformation has yet to be fully funded, so, as an expression of community support for the museum, I asked 20th generation master tea whisk maker, Tanimura Tango in Nara, Japan, to create limited-edition tea whisks (chasen) in the color scheme of Mingei International Museum to organize a modest fundraiser.

Mingei fundraiser limited edition chasen by Tanimura Tango in Navy and Orange strings.
Mingei fundraiser chasen in navy and orange strings (stripes version)

Tanimura Tango’s tea whisk is one of the articles that the Mingei International Museum added to its collection in 2020. His shin-kazuho chasen was also included in the Mingei time capsule this January, together with select Museum publications and other undisclosed objects to commemorate the occasion. This makes his work the perfect symbol for this fundraiser.

Filling the Mingei International Time capsule, January 27th, 2021.
From left, Library & Archives Manager Kristi Ehrig-Burgess, Director Rob Sidner, Deputy Director Jessica York
Photo courtesy of Mingei International Museum

To me, the tea whisk is an allegory for craft that connects us to people across history -over 500 years- and cultures whose collective labor has given it form. In a world that places so much value on speed and immediacy, it is also a powerful reminder that we should strive to build a culture that does not easily forget.

Please help me raise $1000 to donate to the museum that will include all the proceeds from the sale of these limited-edition tea whisks. The whisks are made of white bamboo in shin-kazuho style, a tried and tested design that is highly durable while creating fine foam on top of your matcha when used. It is the same style that is used by the grandmaster of the largest tea school in Japan.

Lastly, thank you very much for your support for my fundraiser. I hope that this blog post will entice you to include San Diego in the list of places that you will visit in the future.

Mingei International Museum reopens over Labor Day weekend
Free admission, September 3rd – 6th
For more information or to donate directly to the museum, please visit their website

Mingei fundraiser chasen in navy and orange strings (Checkered version)

The Opposite Month: Seeing and Doing Things Differently in Mid-Winter

By:
Topics Tea (Chado)

According to the Japanese calendar, spring this year started a day early on February 3rd. You might be baffled to think that spring has arrived during the coldest month of the year, but please just accept it because the Japanese have to do things ahead of time, never after the fact.

The Setsubun -the eve of the first day of spring- chant, “oniwa-soto fukuwa-uchi” written by Japanese calligrapher Kokubun Kayo. On Setsubun, people throw soy beans while chanting these words meaning “out with the ogres; in with good fortune.”

While I should be feeling cheerful and beginning to look for signs of spring in my garden every February, I have been quietly dreading the arrival of this month since I started learning the Way of Tea a number of years ago. Why? Because February is the ‘Opposite Month’. This is the month when guests sit on the left-hand side of the host instead of the standard right in the tearoom.

You might think what is the big deal. Well, it kind of is because everything in the tea preparation has to be done in reverse. Starting from entering the room with the left foot instead of the right, to placing the tea container on the left of the tea bowl that is usually positioned on the right.

There are many differences, but the movement of the feet is especially tricky. So the first day of practice is like being in the Monty Python sketch of the “Ministry of Silly Walks” in a kimono. This can be devastating for beginner students because the muscle memory they have painstakingly acquired over many months gets completely messed up come February.

The opposite position of the tea container and the tea bowl signals that guests are seated on the left hand side of the host.

The inverted tea preparation method was created by the 11th Grandmaster of Urasenke Tea School, Gengensai (1810-1877), who devised the procedure to be able to use a large sunken hearth called ‘dairo’ in the tearoom. Contrary to what I suspected, this reverse practice was not created to literally keep the tea students on their toes, but to use the large hearth that would keep the tearoom warm for guests during the coldest time of the year.

The first-ever dairo practice I did was all a blur, and come March, I was guaranteed to step into the tearoom with the wrong foot. When I whined about the dire consequences of opposite month to my teacher, I remember her saying something like “it’ll start to make sense after 5 years.” Of course, I thought, everything in tea takes so long.

But surprisingly when the dreaded February came last year, which was much longer than the 5 years that my teacher had mentioned, I had a strange feeling of not struggling as much as years past. After the practice, I thought about what was different because I still made a lot of mistakes. Then I realized that it was maybe because I was able to imagine the guests on my left. For many years, there were no guests in the tearoom in my mind because I could only focus on what I was doing with my body. Movements made more sense when I envisioned what should be done in the sight of guests, and what should be done out of their sight.

Recently, as dairo season approached once more, I pondered how amazing it must have been for the guests to have been invited to the first dairo tea gathering by Gengensai. How surprised they must have been when they got into the tearoom and all the utensils were set in reverse. How thrilled they must have been to see tea preparation from the other side, and to realize it was all devised to keep them warm.

February is also known as umemizuki, which means “plum-viewing month,” and tea gatherings are often hosted for viewing the plum blossoms. This photo of beautiful kobai -red plums- was taken in front of the Mingei Museum in Tokyo.

For the record, I’m a big fan of Gengensai because he was also the first tea master to introduce the ryu-rei style, which allowed myself and Westerners to be served tea comfortably sitting in chairs. It’s a shame that I can never meet him, but how great that I can share his story with you here in America.

My tea teacher has not taught in person or remotely during the pandemic, so for the last few months the elder of my school has been graciously helping me practice at home via Zoom. And this week I’ll be starting my dairo practice. So why don’t you join me for opposite month?  It could simply be by folding your clothes in a different way, or setting new rules to your daily walk. You might think it’s a bit childish, but introducing a different set of rules to my ritual and focusing on them have given me a new perspective, and a new way to feel. The effect is very similar to the feeling of being awakened after encountering a beautiful work of art.

A Group of Takayama Chasen is added to the collection of San Diego’s Mingei International Museum

By:
Mingei Tea (Chado) TANIMURA Tango

Takayama chasen by Tanimura Tango in our shop ->

Entoten is delighted to announce that the Mingei International Museum in San Diego has recently acquired a group of Takayama Chasen (tea whisks) by Tanimura Tango for its collection. This is ground-breaking because the story of the humble bamboo whisk, is hardly ever told in other museums, where much of the focus is given to the tea bowls and other utensils. But without the chasen, there will be no matcha nor other utensils, be it in your home or any school of tea.

A group of Takayama chasen acquired by the Mingei International Museum
The exhibit of tea whisks that includes many from the ancestors of Tanimura Tango at his showroom in Nara
(Photo Courtesy of Tanimura Tango)

The Tanimura family has been making chasen in Takayama, Nara prefecture, for nearly 500 years over 20 generations. During this pandemic, my awe and gratitude for the Tanimura family’s dedication to their craft was renewed because, the adversities that they must have overcome in their history of half a millennium was brought into perspective.

Chasen master Tanimura Tango making a tea whisk
(Photo courtesy of Tanimura Tango)

A chasen is made of a single piece of bamboo, and it is a highly renewable, natural material that is kind to the environment. It is flexible to be able to mix the powdered tea efficiently, but without damaging the bowl. So it is difficult to find a utensil that is as perfect as a chasen.

I hope that this consummate utensil will become a more familiar object to the people here, through the collection of the Mingei International Museum, soon to be reborn in the heart of San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park. The Museum is currently closed to go through a major transformation and will reopen in 2021, continuing to shine a light on Mingei: the art of the people from all eras and cultures of the world since 1974.

The construction of the multi-purpose theater has begun at the Mingei International Museum.
Artist rendering of the new Mingei multipurpose theater space for lectures, concerts, films, dinners, and other events.
(Courtesy of Mingei International Museum, artist rendering by LUCE et studio)

Every Bowl Like Your First: The First Kettle of 2020 in San Diego

By:
Topics Tea (Chado)

Happy New Year! Thank you for your support of Entoten in 2019 through visiting my website, offering comments, interacting through the blog and SNS, and purchasing work at my gallery and online shop. I would like to ask for your continued support in 2020, so that I can keep on sharing the work and stories of the people who have dedicated their lives to carry on the tradition of handmade craft for use.

For this first blog post of 2020, I would like to share the story of my first tea demonstration that was mortifying and uplifting at the same time.

Table decoration for the Hatsugama with bamboo, camellia, pine, and nandina berries.

My new year began by taking part in the Hatsugama, which literally means the first kettle, for San Diego Urasenke Tea School’s annual tea event. This year’s preparation for the event was a little more stressful than usual because I was instructed to prepare tea in front of about 120 guests.

I was required to follow the procedure called Misonodana, a way of serving tea using tables and chairs. This style of tea preparation is called ryurei, and was first introduced to the world by Gengensai, the 11th head of Urasenke for the 1872 International Exposition in Kyoto so that Western visitors could be served tea while comfortably sitting in chairs in a non-traditional Japanese setting.

Misonodana and scooping the hot water with a shaking hishaku

In most matcha preparations, the water is scooped and poured with a bamboo ladle called hishaku, which is one of the most difficult utensils ever invented to master the use in chanoyu. It is very easy to spill, drip, or dribble water while using the hishaku. But when the utensil is used masterfully, it is beautiful to watch and the sound of the water poured from a hishaku is one of the highlights of the tea preparation.

The other issue with the hishaku that I discovered when preparing this year’s tea is that when I’m nervous, it is very difficult to stop it from shaking. The more I tried to stop, the more my hands trembled. It was devastating.

The hishaku, one of the most difficult utensils ever invented to master the use in chanoyu

After I finished my demonstration I told my sensei that because I was so nervous, I could not stop the hishaku from shaking and it was very difficult to prepare the tea. Her response was unexpected. She laughed and said, “that’s perfect. That’s the attitude you should always have when you prepare a bowl of tea. Prepare every bowl, like you did today.”

I wanted to prepare tea smoothly and elegantly because, after learning chanoyu for 6 years, I naively believed that I should have been able to carry out the procedure without any problem. But after hearing what sensei said, I realized that my desire missed the point of tea completely. I also felt a little better that I was able to make a good bowl of tea for the guests.

I hope that 2020 will be a year full of eye-opening discoveries like this for you too.

The Unsung Heros of the Tea Room

By:
Tea (Chado) TANIMURA Tango

Tea Whisks by Tanimura Tango in our shop ->

Tea Whisks by Tanimura Tango <br /> From the top left: Kazuho, Hachijuppondate, Sohenryu, Araho-Sohenryu, Unmondake shin-kazuho, Shin-kochasen <br /> From the bottom left: Soshuryu, Araho-Soshuryu, Shin-Kazuho, Shin-Araho, Tenmoku, Kurotake Shin Kazuho
Tea Whisks by Tanimura Tango
From the top left: Kazuho, Hachijuppondate, Sohenryu, Araho-Sohenryu, Unmondake shin-kazuho, Shin-kochasen
From the bottom left: Soshuryu, Araho-Soshuryu, Shin-Kazuho, Shin-Araho, Tenmoku, Kurotake Shin Kazuho

I took this photo this morning to show some of the different types of tea whisks that we received from Nara’s master tea whisk maker Tanimura Tango today. It is astonishing to see this photo and then to think that the utensil was originally devised 500 years ago, around the time that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and that it has remained virtually unchanged since.

The Sistine Chapel is visited by over five million people every year, while the chasen is about the only utensil that is not given a name or revered even in the tea room. So I just wanted to say that the chasen are the little known heros of the tea room. These boxes containing the whisks read: “Great Nippon; awarded for excellence; great Yamato country’s Takayama tea whisk maker; Wahokudo Tanimura Tango”

California Natives: Manzanita “Vandenberg” in a Vase by Bill Geisinger

By:
Bill GEISINGER Research Tea (Chado)

How should I select and arrange flowers in a vessel? For the tea room, Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) famously said that “the flowers should be arranged as they are in the field”.

As I walked my dog one fall morning last year and saw the misleadingly iconic imported palm trees and eucalyptuses against the blue California sky, I wondered “so what did Californian fields look like before these exotic plants arrived?”

Palm trees are ubiquitous in San Diego, and they seem to be considered representative of California
Looking out to the ocean from Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. Natural reserves provide a glimpse of what indigenous California fields look like. The Southern California coast often starts gray in the morning, as seen in this photo, but then brightens as the sun breaks through for the rest of the day.

On one side of our back garden, I have a long strip of planter area that I had been been watching weeds grow for the last two years. My grand plan after all the necessary repairs were done inside the house, was to plant some beautiful flowers like camellias and peonies that are listed as ‘appropriate’ for the tea room. No I don’t have such a room yet, but it is part of my ambitious 20-year renovation vision that I promise to discuss with my husband who will first read about the plan in this blog.

I began researching camellias and read about the care and attention for the one type that I have always wanted. It is called Camellia Wabisuke and is a small single form camellia that I frequently see in photos of tea room alcoves. My desire for this flower was made stronger because of its perfect name, which includes the word wabi!

Japan’s oldest Wabisuke Camellia in Ryoanji temple Kyoto, conveniently labeled for tourists with a sign.

Then, I looked at a photo that I took of Japan’s oldest Wabisuke plant in Ryoanji from a past trip to Kyoto, and realized that I was crazy. Camellias really belong where there is regular rain and sufficient humidity, which is usually where luscious mosses can grow and cover the ground. When I mentioned this to my tea teacher who has been growing tea flowers in San Diego for the last 50 years, she shook her head and confirmed that “camellias are the most difficult to grow and care for” in Southern California.

Single form white camellia that will be close to impossible to grow in Southern California. White camellias are especially difficult to grow according to my tea teacher.

Feeling defeated before even planting a single flora, I looked through my tea ceremony guide book and re-read the seven rules of Sen no Rikyu, which led me to the opening question of this blog.

After some research, I was surprised to discover that there are thousands of plant species in California, many of which can be found nowhere else. Many also bloom with beautiful and unostentatious flowers. I excitedly thought that I should try turning my back-garden dirt strip into a native flower cutting garden and started to investigate which plants I should grow. This was no easy task because the actual plants are not commonly sold in nearby nurseries.

Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano

Finally when I attended a native garden workshop I discovered the Tree of Life nursery in San Juan Capistrano that is owned by Mike Evans. I was inspired when he said that “your garden should provide a sense of place and it should be a place where you want to spend time engaging and enjoy caring for”. Tree of Life specializes in native plants suited for Southern California and each plant is provided with a detailed description for the care that it needs, which is very helpful for a novice gardener like me.

The first native flower I planted was an Island Bush Poppy. This should grow to over 5 feet.

So far, I have planted 8 native grasses and flowers and they all seem to be thriving. One of them is the Manzanita “Vandenberg,” so called because it was discovered on the central coast near Vandenberg Air Force Base. The planting direction that I follow is: “dig a hole twice as big as the container, plant with no fertilizer, no soil amendments, just some mulch and native soil.”

Manzanita Vandenberg with deer grass in Bill Geisinger’s wood-fired vase. Its flowers look like lovely upside down vases when looked at closely, its fruit look like mini apples (manzanita in Spanish).

Today, I cut a stem from the Vandenberg and put it in a vase by Bill Geisinger, which is made from California native clay. I do not know what Master Rikyu would have thought about this arrangement, but it was a moment when I realized that the wisdom he had left behind over 400 years ago continues to be relevant as a guide for figuring out a good perspective, and a way of life. Above all,  I am grateful that these plants provide a sense of connection to California, even for a transplant like me.