photos courtesy Mori Soyu and Kazumasa Murayama
Last week, climbers approaching the summit of Mt. Fuji were treated to a special event: a tea ceremony inside a pop-up tea room set up at the eighth station of the Yoshida trail. The tea ceremony, which was scheduled just days before the end of Mt. Fuji’s hiking season, was intended to express gratitude for the blessings of Mt. Fuji.
The tea house itself was designed by architect Shinichiro Hashiguchi, who is known for incorporating weaving twisted yarn into his work. He used the traditional Gunnai textile technique, which originated locally in the city of Fujiyoshida, to create a delicate exoskeleton of threads which were supported by a frame structure.
The tea ceremony itself was conducted by Soyu Mori, a master of the Urasenke tea school. For hot water, he used an electric heater to boil snowmelt water that had been sourced from nearby. Roughly 50 climbers from all over the world were lucky enough to experience this once-in-a-lifetime tea ceremony. You can see more pictures from the event over on the Instagram accounts of Soyu Mori, as well as cultural event planner Kazumasa Murayama.
