On November 21, 1634 (Kan’ei 11), a tea gathering was held at the Sento Gosho (Retired Emperor’s Palace) in Kyoto, the residence of Retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo, as recorded in the Rokuon Nichiroku.
Following Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Imperial Palace Tea Gathering in 1585 (Tenshō 13) and the Kan’ei Gyoko to Nijo Castle in 1626 (Kan’ei 3), the practice of chanoyu (the Japanese tea ceremony) became increasingly integrated into the culture of the Imperial Court and was eventually incorporated into court ceremonies.
This lecture traces the relationship between the Imperial Family and the tea ceremony from the reign of Emperor Saga in the early Heian period and explores what tea meant to the court aristocracy during this transformation.
Lecturer: Toru Yoda
Born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1977, Toru Yoda is Chief Curator of the Toyama Memorial Museum. He completed the doctoral program in the Department of Art Studies at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, and holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts.
His fields of specialization are the history of modern Japanese art and the history of the Japanese tea ceremony. His major publications include The Birth of Bonsai (Taishukan Publishing, 2014) and The Imperial Family and the Tea Ceremony (Tankosha, 2019).
Date & Time
Sunday, August 2, 2026, from 2:00 p.m.
Doors open at 1:15 p.m.; scheduled to conclude at 3:30 p.m.
Venue
ANA Crowne Plaza Kyoto
Nijo Castle-mae, Horikawa-dori, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Approximately a one-minute walk from Exit 2 of Nijojo-mae Station
Admission
Free of charge
Advance registration required; capacity approximately 300
➡Please register through Peatix.
Organizer and Partners
Organizer: Kan’ei Gyoko 400th Anniversary Festival Executive Committee
Co-organizer: Living History KYOTO
With the cooperation of: ANA Crowne Plaza Kyoto
