The 15th head of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony, one of the most prominent traditions of Japanese chado (the Way of Tea). He died on August 14th 2025, aged 102.
The son of the 14th tea master, Sen Genshitsu's life was mapped out for him from childhood. He grew up in Kyoto, playing with fire ash and bamboo ladles and practising deportment by carrying a heavy ceramic brazier up and down the hall. His father instructed him severely, and his mother tested him afterwards from behind the sliding paper doors. To become a tea master he also had to become a Zen priest.
In October 1944, as a university student, he joined the imperial navy's Special Attack Force—the kamikaze programme—training for just 40–50 hours (ordinary navy pilots took 500). He held tea ceremonies for his fellow student pilots at the base. All 200 of his comrades flew off to Okinawa and did not return, but Sen Genshitsu was removed from the sortie list by some fluke he never unravelled. He resolved to live the rest of his life for his fallen comrades, not as a warrior but as a bringer of peace.
He began travelling the world in 1951, starting in New York, and eventually visited 70 countries to spread the culture and spirit of the tea ceremony. He performed tea for Queen Elizabeth, Pope John Paul II, Angela Merkel and George W. Bush. In July 2011 he went to Pearl Harbor, where he performed a chado in the memorial above the sunken USS Arizona for the souls of the sailors entombed below.
His home in Kyoto housed the most famous tea compound in the city. The tea hut was simple as a mountain hermitage, with unpainted walls of clay, following the principles laid down by Sen No Rikyu, the greatest master, in the 16th century: simplicity, purity, respect, harmony and tranquility.
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