At the New Year [Jan 2013]

KOBORI Sojitsu (the 13th Grand Master of the Enshu Sado School )

It is my pleasure to wish everyone the best in the New Year and the coming spring and hope that this year brings great joy to everyone.

As busy at is always is, lat year came to close with Japanese politics falling into disarray. With little attention paid to the daily lives of the people and little or no mention of the rebuilding of Fukushima, it all seemed to end in an unpleasant charade.

What concerns me the most is how not one member of congress will touch on Japanese culture. It is deplorable how culture is belittled.

Japan is not supported solely by its economic, political and diplomatic power. Technology and culture are what Japan can be proud of overseas.

After the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, the last thing that one could say Japan was praised for overseas was economic and political power. It was instead the individual Japanese person's ability to yield to others, to be grateful and to be happy that others are happy. It is being Japanese itself that we ought to be proud of the most and what we must never lose.

Luckily, these are things which in tea ceremony, we consider important and pass on from one generation to the next. Experiencing, knowing and practicing tea ceremony is a deeply meaningful activity.

At this year’s year poem reading get together, 'standing' was the theme. I hope that for everyone, this year is a one worth standing for and one full of great growth.