Oct 15-22 Only: A New Take on Traditional Tea Party, at Kagawa’s World Famous Ritsurin Garden

Kagawa Prefecture, Ritsurin Garden, and Tea Ceremony

In Kagawa Prefecture’s capital city of Takamatsu sits the world-famous Ritsurin Garden. This scenic wonder 750,000 square-meter park was originally completed in 1745 as a private retreat and strolling ground for the local feudal lords after a century of multigenerational development.

Ritsurin Garden offers a diverse wealth of captivating, soothing views of natural beauty at its finest

It is hard to overstate the parkland’s cultural significance, sitting as it does along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, the cradle of Japan’s early civilization: a historic region of travel, trade, diplomacy, and war. Kagawa was the birthplace of Kukai, a scholar monk who trained in Tang Dynasty China and returned to found Shingon Buddhism. In this rich historical milieu, Ritsurin Garden sits on what was once a riverbed, turned into dry habitable land by a massive feat of pre-modern flood control engineering.

The influence of Yorishige Matsudaira in the park’s history has linked its lore to tea ceremony

The garden owes its existence in large part to the patronage of Yorishige Matsudaira, a warlord of the region and grandson of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the famed shogun who finally united the various realms of Japan into a single nation. Matsudaira was a lover and patron of culture and the arts, including tea ceremony – which gave rise to the question at the heart of this event’s concept: what would a large-scale all-out tea ceremony event thrown by Matsudaira in the park look like if he had lived today?

A Vista for Every Step, and a Savor for Every Scene

Ritsurin Garden’s beloved embodiment of Japan’s aesthetics and traditional love of nature has come to be celebrated with the saying “ippo, ikkei,” which literally translates to “a vista for every step.” The “Ritsurin Wagashi and Walk” pays homage to this, as well as to the park’s historical association with patronage of tea ceremony, by offering groups the opportunity to feast not only their eyes on the views, but their taste buds on delicious wagashi traditional tea ceremony confectionery.

A confectionery creation by Mineko Kato (image for for illustration purposes only; actual sweets offered will differ)

In addition to the wagashi sweets, visitors can also partake in an outdoor tea ceremony activity, along with a variety of other tea- and tea ceremony-themed refreshments, attractions, and activities such as cocktails and architectural installations, ranging from purely traditional to fashionable and innovative to pop whimsical and avant garde.

Tea ceremony is deeply connected with the garden’s history

A Tapestry of Local Culture and Personalities

After checking in, begin your tour of the various richly-prepared experience sites (order of activities will vary for each group). Befitting the sprawling venue and the diverse variety of things to see and do and enjoy, an impressively eclectic variety of creative visionaries at the tops of their fields came together to make this event happen. Tokyo-born confectioner Mineko Kato, recipient of the 2024 Asia’s Best Pastry Chef Award, oversees the Wagashi offerings. Nagumo Shuzo, UK-trained mixologist and owner of bars across Tokyo in Singapore, crafted the themed lineup of cocktails, with each one representing a different view within Ritsurin Garden.

(Left) Mineko Kato, recipient of the 2024 Asia’s Best Pastry Chef Award, oversees the Wagashi offerings
(Right)Mixologist Nagumo Shuzo, whose cocktail creations add a creative flourish to the tea ceremony concept

The director of tea ceremony for this event is Soto Takei, a master of buke-cha – warrior-style tea ceremony – who has hosted eminent tea ceremonies for international state-level visitors to Japan as well as performed guest ceremonies at sightseeing spots in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Under his direction, the event offers five distinct spaces and three distinct stylized approaches to tea ceremony: one for Shin, true traditional tea ceremony; another for Gyo, modern innovations on tradition such as a tea hookah for smoking; and three for Sou, a colorful modern “pop” reinterpretations of the very limits of tea ceremony.（Exact experience details may vary.）

Soto Takei, globally acclaimed master of tea ceremony

A Master’s Distinct Visions of what Tea Ceremony is, Could Be, and Might Be 

Ritsurin Garden offers a new vista for every step, and this event offers five tea spaces in which to enjoy distinct visions of tea ceremony. Shin (“truth”) offers an authentic traditional tea ceremony harkening back to the days of the Matsudaira family and their pedigree. Gyo (“action”) offers a “deconstruction” of the traditional-style ceremonies held in the park in ages past. Sou (“growth”) offers modernized “reconstructions” of the very notion of tea ceremony, in three distinct spaces of its own. Enjoy a bold reinterpretation of tea ceremony in an outdoor tea space purpose-built for this event, including craft cocktails of Kagawa sake and fermented tea, or hookah-style tea tasting.

The three Sou space designs are the brainchild of Yuko Nagayama, a multiple-award-winning architectural designer and visiting professor at Musashino Art University whose works include the Kyoto Daimaru Louis Vuitton store, Kayaba Coffee, Toshima Yokoo Art Museum, the Japan Pavillion at the Dubai World Expo, and the Tokyo Kabukicho Tower.

Yuko Nagayama, multiple-award-winning architectural designer

Huge in Scale and Elaborate in Detail, Oft-visited yet Seldom Fully Experienced – Ritsurin Garden as a View of Life Itself

When all of these unique visionaries and offerings come together in a venue as magical as Ritsurin Garden, the result is a glorious day of adventure, relaxation, and inspiration unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else. And true to its wabi-sabi tea ceremony inspirations, this is a limited-time event in which each day embodies an ephemeral moment in time and place never to be repeated, with the power to move guests and form an inspiring lifelong memory.

Each nook and cranny of Ritsurin Garden is an enchanting world unto itself