Japanese Tea Ceremony with Sokou Udagawa Ep.1 | The 800-Year History Behind a Single Bowl of Tea

What if the Japanese tea ceremony was never meant to be a ceremony at all? Long before it became a lesson in etiquette, tea in Japan was something closer to a party you threw for your friends. Sokou Udagawa, the 18th head of the Sowa school of tea, traces how a Chinese drink carried over by a Zen monk became a guessing game played for prizes, then a symbol of power handed down from the Ashikaga shogunate to Oda Nobunaga, and finally wabicha — a style of gathering that prizes quiet and restraint over display. After the Meiji Restoration, when the lords who employed tea masters disappeared, tea was rebuilt as a school subject and a bridal accomplishment, and the older thing — *chaji*, the full gathering — quietly slipped out of view. Ep.1 of three, filmed in Tokyo. ▶ The full series Ep.2 | The Man Who Never Meant to Teach Tea — Coming Soon — Wed, September 9 at 10pm JST Ep.3 | Inside a Chaji, the Gathering Few Visitors Ever See — Coming Soon — Fri, September 11 at 10pm JST See the full series →    • Sokou Udagawa | Chaji, the Full Japanese T...   🎬 Exclusive | Behind the Scenes → https://bespoke-discovery.com/yt/soko... 📖 Read the Interview → https://bespoke-discovery.com/yt/soko... Sit at a chaji hosted by Sokou Udagawa → www.bespoke-discovery.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About Bespoke Discovery ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Bespoke Discovery invites you into the hidden world of Japan's most extraordinary artisans, traditions, and cultural experiences — rarely seen, never forgotten. 🌐 www.bespoke-discovery.com 📍 Based in Japan | Serving discerning travelers worldwide #JapaneseTeaCeremony #Chaji #Wabicha #Chado #SowaSchool #SokouUdagawa #Matcha #JapaneseCulture #JapaneseHistory #TokyoExperience #HiddenJapan #BespokeDiscovery