Aniversario de 90 anos do Daisosho Sen Soshitsu XV Urasenke

Dear Urasenke Members,

We hope that this message finds you in the best of health and spirits and enjoying the spring. Here in Kyoto, the sakura trees appear covered with a faint pink mist; they will probably be in full bloom by the end of the week. No doubt you have fond memories of the large Somei Yoshino blooming across the street from the Kabutomon, and of having hanami dango and sakura mochi for okeiko.

We are writing to ask you all to help Daisosho celebrate his 90th birthday, which is coming up on April 19th. Daisosho continues his mission to spread tea around the world and has just returned from a whirlwind trip to Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Beijing, Tienjin, and Shanghai.

The ninetieth birthday is called “Sotsuju” 卆寿 in Japanese, because the simplified kanji for “sotsu” can be separated into the kanji for “nine” and “ten.” “Ju” is “kotobuki,” meaning felicitations and long life.

To celebrate this remarkable milestone, it has been suggested that people prepare an A4 page collage with birthday greetings and photos, making the greetings very visual. This is partly to eliminate the need to translate the messages as has been done in the past. Also, Daisosho must read a mountain of documents every day, so seeing your smiling faces and tea activities will be especially meaningful.

To help him remember all of his many students, please lay out both "before photo" of you in Midorikai and "after photo" of you today. Please also attach photos of your present tea activities. If you like, a short handwritten or typed message can be included. These are only suggestions, please be creative and have fun!

Finally, please include your name, country, study period and present address somewhere on the greeting in order to eliminate the need to search files for this information. Email your greetings as an attachment to daisosho@gmail.com by April 12th. This account is monitored by Kokusaibu staff, who will print them out and the album of greetings will be brought to Daisosho on April 18th.

See below for submission guidelines. If you have questions or problems please contact Bruce Hamana at kokusai@urasenke.or.jp

Please share this message with your classmates and encourage them to participate. Because of the time constraint and the shortage of staff, no reminders will be sent. This is the only request you will receive. (It is later than you think; koin ya no gotoshi “light and shadow (day and night) are like an arrow.” )

Thanks to everyone for submitting your greetings to Daisosho on this wonderful occasion!

Sincerely,

Midorikai Alumni Association


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Submission Guidelines:
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Please prepare a document on an A4 size format. (PDF or Word document recommended.)

If you are using Microsoft Word, or other word processing program, there should be a size A4 selection under Page Setup > Paper Size. If this is not in your word processing program you can set the A4 size manually (210mm X 297mm or 8.3inches X 11.7inches).

If you do not have a program to convert your file to a PDF document you can upload it to http://www.zamzar.com/ . This is a free service and a link to the converted PDF file will be emailed back to you within minutes of submitting it.

Include your name, country, study period and present address somewhere on the greeting in order to eliminate the need to search files for this information.

Email your greetings as an attachment to daisosho@gmail.com no later than April 12 2013.

Please address questions or problems you may have to Bruce Hamana at kokusai@urasenke.or.jp