2023-04-24 Banquet Speech

Banquet Speech

Speech for the 2023-04-24-CU-Tankokai-20th CU Tankokai 20th Anniversary banquet.

Sketch

• Intro
  • So happy to be here, familiar faces and new friends alike.
  • I’m here today as one of the alumi.
  • I’m a university alum, starting tea with Jennifer sensei’s class in 2014 while I was a student, I graduated from Midorikai in 2019, and now I’m living in Colorado where there’s not nearly as much tea as here.
  • We’re trying to establish our own tankokai to fix that, but doing so has made it clear to us how much we’ve missed being part of an established group.
  • Gunji-Sensei asked me to give a short address today, so I thought I would take this opportunity to give credit where credit’s due, and highlight some of the many things that this tankokai does well which you don’t get when you’re starting out fresh.
• A community to share tea with:
  • Tea is about a lot of things, one of them being the guest.
  • Feels hollow without sharing a bowl
  • So much that an established tankokai has:
    • Okeiko time to share tea with others
    • Internal events to put teaching aside and just enjoy
    • External demonstrations for the public
      • Daisosho just had his 100th birthday, and I think it’s a great reminder of his efforts to share peace through a bowl of tea
      • Valuable both to yourself, as well as to the people coming in contact with it for the first time
  • This group in particular does such an amazing job with this, with the thursday demos, open houses, school outreach, and every one of those takes a ton of work to set up
• Fellow students:
  • Growing your study with other people is really nice. You can cheer each other on, watch each other for things you like about their temae that you want to incorporate into your own (or things you don’t want to incorporate)
  • We had all of this and more in our okeiko at Japan House. We all grew rather close, and I looked forward to every single Thursday where I could see people again.
  • Something I really hope we can build in Colorado as well
• Knowledge
  • This one probably applies more if you’re teaching than if you’re a student
  • But ah! It’s such a responsibility to be in charge of people’s learning, especially when you’re their sole source of information.
  • You can reach out to people, but it’s not the same as people being right there.
  • Speaking about this group specifically, there is just such a wealth of knowledge.
    • Gunji-sensei, Sumi-sensei, Jennifer-sensei, Lindsey-sensei
    • You never feel alone surrounded by a group like that.
• “I was talking with my wife Kristina about this, and I shared my outline, and she said, ‘oh yeah, it’s exactly like making chashaku. Looks simple, but when you do it yourself even once, you realize how complicated they are.”
• We’re here at the 20th, and if our group that we’re building can achieve a fraction of what this group has at our own 20th, I’ll be so happy.

Wednesday evening thoughts

I think I’m back to framing this around starting a tankokai, but still tying back in the whole “I’m here as one of the alumni, and this idea of doing tea from scratch is universal.”

Possible topics:

• List of things that, in retrospect, you have in an established tankokai that you don’t have when you’re starting from scratch?
• What it’s like to start a tankokai
• Things you take for granted when part of a functioning tankokai
• Benefits of doing tea from scratch
  • Tea is a mountain? (Probably no: this has a negative view of establishment)

Ideas on things you have in established tankokai that you don’t have when starting from scratch:

• Tea space, dougu, etc.
  • First thought: not interesting, it’s a money thing.
  • Second thought: maybe interesting, mitate + spirit of tea
• Community at large
  • “1st year bucket list item”
  • Tea is about a lot of things, one of them is the guest. Hard to do tea in earnest when it’s all alone in your house.
• Fellow students
  • tbh probably a sub-point of above.
  • Growing your study together is really nice. Learning from each other, advancing together, etc.
  • Also the bond that comes with it. Tea fam.
• Knowledge
  • being on an island is scary
  • yes, you can reach out to people (and we still have our regular okeiko), but suddenly being the person responsible for other people’s learning is really a lot. it makes it clear just how much you don’t know.
• Ending note: we’re here at the tankokai 20th anniversary, hitting a fraction of that would be great
• Extra notes:
  • It’s like having never made a chashaku yourself

Wednesday morning thoughts

• Focus less on starting a tankokai, and more on what it’s like to try to do tea without this kind of support network?
  • “I’m here on behalf of the alumni, and I think a lot of alumni go through something similar, where they don’t have the same network available as they do here.”
• Got offered a job opportunity in Colorado. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, but it happened way sooner than I expected! I was planning on living here.

Outline

• Intro

  • I will definitely say JH instead of Tankokai, please forgive me for that and just do the switch in your head.

• My journey

  • Started by taking Jennifer’s class in 2014
    • Had a big impact on my mental health. Gave me a weekly grounding point, and gave me something to focus on that wasn’t engineering
  • Loved it, joined okeiko starting in 2015
    • I still had that weekly grounding point, but it also really did something for my engineering brain
    • I liked looking for patterns and trying to come up with a framework for what I was doing
  • Before too long, I realized this was going to be big for the rest of my life, and I wanted to share it.
    • My vehicle for sharing was tbd. Bringing to engineers? Teaching? Think about it as a vehicle for mental health? Not sure.
  • So, applied to Midorikai and ended up studying in Kyoto for one year.
    • While there, met some really amazing people.
      • My wife
      • Suzuki-sensei
      • Classmates etc (3 generations of Midorikai sitting at that table)
    • Midorikai takes over your brain in a way; afterward, you simply cannot imagine a life without tea
  • Came back, and got a new job taking me to Colorado.
  • Tea here in Colorado was pretty limited.
    • Teacher who had been operating in the area was no longer conducting classes
    • A few people who loved doing regular chaji, but not much of a “network”
    • Fortunately, lots of former students who were eager to get back into tea
  • So, that brings us to today. We’re trying to establish our tankokai, and it’s really hard!
    • Establishing a teaching space
    • Establishing a student base
      • This is more important for the students than anything, honestly. You learn from each other; corrections during your temae are great, but imo the learning moments really come from studying your fellow students and looking at them as if they’re a reflection into your temae.
      • Also, social! It’s more fun to be with people.
    • Establishing community connections
      • Getting back to the original idea of sharing. Who are you sharing with?
      • Emailing the consulate, trying to get friendly with the local Japanese restaurants — there is a bit of a traveling salesperson vibe
    • Establishing longevity
      • This is the hardest imo. Even if you have the 3 above, you need to set up your group for success. You need dedicated students who can become the next generation of teachers, and you need to make sure they’re equipped (physically, even ie space, dougu) to continue forward.

• Big-hitter talking points

  • To current students: don’t take things for granted!
    • I remember people coming to JH when I was there and being amazed by the space. I didn’t really get it at the time, but, seriously, the space is incredible.
    • It’s not just that though! It’s:
      • Having such a wealth of knowledge in the teaching corps
      • Having such great opportunities for demonstrations with the regular Thursday opportunities, open houses, Matsuri, etc
        • I really, genuinely believe that JH does
      • So many dougu options!
      • Such good community support
        • This pertains more to the “starting a tankokai” thing, but you don’t have to pound the pavement in nearly the same way. People know and love this stuff in the community.
      • Such a friendly group of students, both college students coming in as well as long term students
    • None of that comes for free. Speaking from experience lol, getting those things up and running takes effort, and to do it as masterfully as this tankokai has is incredible.
  • Tankokai is at 20 years — I would be so happy if we could achieve a fraction of this in our next 20 years.
    • We are building, slowly slowly, but we would love to see you. If you come through the Boulder / Denver area, let us know so we can have you for tea!