Mr. Yoshitsugu Nagano, a New York-based tea master of the Ueda Sōko-ryū, will speak on the theme of "Business and Tea Ceremony" in a conversation with Mr. Masaaki Maeda, Vice President & Assistant Secretary of the Nippon Club.

Are you familiar with “kindai-sukisha”? The term refers to leading business figures of the Meiji era who were devoted to the tea ceremony. In the course of their business relationships with Western countries, they realized the importance and value of their own culture. They made a deliberate effort to nurture that culture, and in the process, they gave rise to an influential tradition that would be embraced and expanded by later Japanese businessmen such as Konosuke Matsushita, the Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic.

What was it about tea that fascinated them? We will show how these individuals, best known for their success in business, were also tea masters.

This is an online event, and you can easily participate from your home or office via PC or smartphone.

Free Webinar (registration required)

(Optional donation to the Bento Box Project for New York's frontline workers)

Yoshitsugu Nagano

Japanese Tea Ritual Master / Professor of the Ueda Soko school

Yoshitsugu Nagano is the youngest person to be certified in the highest rank of the Ueda Soko school of samurai tea ceremony (USRJWT), which has been practiced in Hiroshima for 400 years, and he serves as a regular professor of the school.

In 2019, he relocated to New York City, where he energetically promotes the spirituality and aesthetics of chanoyu through hosting tea rituals both for public audience and by special arrangement, presenting workshops, and teaching his students. He establishes styles of modern tea, incorporating new expressions into this tradition rooted in Zen.

www.y-nagano.jp

In 1905, The Nippon Club was established by Dr. Jokichi Takamine, a famous chemist, to tighten the unity of the Japanese community and to develop a better relationship with the American People. For the last 100 years, The Nippon Club, which is the only Japanese social club in the U.S. , has contributed to the continued friendship, not to mention ongoing business and cultural exchange, between the two countries through various events, workshops and cultural classes.

By holding various athletic events and cultural activities, as well as by providing the facilities where these events can occur, The Nippon Club has cemented itself as one of New York ’s oldest cultural institutions and it will continue to serve the community from the center of the world’s most international metropolitan area. For more information, please visit: www.nipponclub.org