Welcome to the homepage of the Ueda Sōko Ryū Australia. We conduct regular practice, tea gatherings and explore the possibilities of the Japanese tea ceremony as performance art around Melbourne and Sydney. We welcome enquiries about regular practice, workshops, demonstrations, performances and conducting tea gatherings.

 
The Japanese tea ceremony is an art that developed from the practice of tea drinking in Zen temples. It is said to be the physical embodiment of the tranquil mind state and values involved in Zen practice. In a tea ceremony, powdered green tea or matcha is prepared in front of guests according to a highly structured procedure. 

The tea ceremony, or chanoyu in Japanese, involves much more than its English name suggests. The ceremonial aspect is certainly a major part, but more than the actual tea making procedure itself, chanoyu involves all the activities leading to tea drinking; all the utensils used in the tea ceremony; the entire atmosphere surrounding the procedure; and the most important phase, the frame of mind or the spirit which grows out of the combination of all these factors.

In feudal Japan, chanoyu and Zen were widely practised and held in high esteem by the samurai. The Ueda Sōko Tradition of Chanoyu was founded in Hiroshima in the early 1600s by warlord and tea master Ueda Sōko from whom the Tradition takes its name. It is a Ueda Sōko Tradition is representative of the chanoyu developed by the samurai of feudal Japan. It places particular emphasis on developing the sincerity of the host; developing Zen values and mind state through all the activities of the tea ceremony; and cultivating beauty that is invigorating, minimal and elegant.