From wanting to offer a tea ceremony for people in our present-day, a tea-ceremony that is a more casual rather than traditional, Shuntaro Kondou is planning several tea-ceremony events that can be enjoyed by anyone. In 2009, November he labeled this the “Avant-garde tea-ceremony” and has been active since.

And this time, the “Uchu Jisshoku” project started from the idea of wanting to create a sun shaped planet in the tea cup.

Senrikyu hired 10 workers to create his own style tools. And later, generation after generation its lineage is still continuing to make the tools. We call them the “Senke jisshoku”. This time because coincidentally there were 10 sun shaped planets, we decided to name this “Uchu jisshoku”.

The first presentation was held in Tokyo. Believing that anything to figure was important, he made an entrance in a NASA style coveralls with Uchu jisshoku stitching.

20 artists had created images of planets in the tea cups for us.

Pick a tea cup you like from here, and make your way to the tea room under the blue sky.

And this tatami. For the occasion of this project, we prepared and collaborated with Japanese space stylist Bunshi Okubo and custom-made the cosmo tatami.

Where Shuntaro Kondo sits in a “Tenzen” style (the way to make green tea), is the sun.
The tatami we sit on are made perfectly round in the shapes of the planets. You get to chose the tatami you want among Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn.

First we are going to eat Japanese sweets.

After eating the sweets, you will have a cup of tea with the “Uchu tea cup” you chose.

There are unique shaped tea cups like these as well.

The Sakura blossoms had just blossomed; it was the perfect season to enjoy tea. These tea ceremonies are held regularly, therefore for those who are interesting in tea; it is nice to experience at least once.

■Shuntaro Kondou “Avant-garde tea-ceremony”
https://www.ava-cha.com