Grand master to perform Japanese Tea Ceremony in honour of Pearl Harbor victims

Implements for Tea Ceremony on display in Poland.

Honolulu—in a historic event, Sen Genshitsu, grand master of the Urasenke school of Japanese Tea Ceremony, will perform a tea ceremony at the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor tomorrow.  The event is to honor Americans who died when Japan attacked Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Two Pearl Harbor survivors are expected, along with the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Patrick Walsh. Kamo Yoshihiko, the Japanese Consul General in Honolulu, will also attend.

The 88 year-old Sen, who served in the Japanese naval air force during World War II, is the 15th generation grand master of Urasenke, which dates to the 1600s. His son is the current head of the school, which is the largest of the three best-known schools of traditional tea ceremony.  Sen lived in Hawaii in 1952, and has studied and taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.