Tokyo: Private Urasenke Tea Ceremony with Matcha & Wagashi

Step inside a working tea culture venue in Shinjuku and experience the Japanese tea ceremony through both observation and hands-on practice.

This private one-hour experience takes place at Chawamasudaya, a tea-utensil business founded in 1930 that continues to host tea lessons, gatherings, and cultural experiences today.

Learn from an Urasenke practitioner with advanced tea qualifications and academic training in traditional arts.

First, discover the meaning behind the tearoom, utensils, guest etiquette, and flow of temae.

Watch a tea preparation demonstration, enjoy seasonal wagashi and matcha as a guest, then take the whisk yourself and prepare your own bowl of usucha.

No previous tea ceremony experience is required.

Enter a long-established tea culture venue

The experience takes place at Chawamasudaya in Shinjuku.

The business was founded in 1930 and continues to work with tea utensils, tea instruction, and tea ceremony experiences.

The building also contains a traditional tearoom used for regular tea gatherings. Independent coverage of the venue documents monthly tea gatherings in the third-floor tearoom.

This gives the experience a different atmosphere from a temporary tourist demonstration space.

Learn from an Urasenke instructor

The instructor’s published qualifications include:

• Urasenke Jun-Kyoju

• Master’s degree in Traditional Arts

• Culinary qualification

• Chinese tea arts qualification

Urasenke itself lists Jun-Kyoju as an official qualification within its formal training system.

In English, it is safer to describe this as:

“an Urasenke instructor holding the Jun-Kyoju qualification”

rather than translating Jun-Kyoju literally as an academic “associate professor.”

Begin with the meaning of tea ceremony

Before drinking matcha, learn what the tea ceremony is trying to create.

Your instructor will introduce selected ideas behind chanoyu, including the relationship between:

• Host and guest

• Season

• Tea utensils

• Food and sweets

• Movement

• Space

• Hospitality

The official Chawamasudaya experience itself introduces both the history and spirituality of tea ceremony before the practical portion begins.

Learn how to behave as a guest

Tea ceremony is not only about how the host prepares tea.

The guest also has a role.

Learn selected beginner-friendly etiquette such as:

• How to enter the space

• How and when to bow

• How to sit comfortably

• How to receive sweets

• How to receive the tea bowl

• How to handle the chawan

• How to drink matcha respectfully

The exact level of formality should follow the one-hour program rather than trying to teach every rule of formal chanoyu.

Discover the utensils

Your instructor introduces selected utensils used during the session.

Depending on the seasonal arrangement, these may include items such as:

• Chawan — tea bowl

• Chasen — bamboo whisk

• Chashaku — tea scoop

• Natsume — tea caddy

• Kama — kettle

Do not promise a fixed set of historic or valuable utensils unless those objects are guaranteed for every session.

One of the strengths of the venue is that it originates from a long-established tea-utensil business, so explanations can connect the objects with their actual use rather than treating them only as decoration.

Watch the temae

Observe selected movements from Urasenke tea practice.

The host prepares the utensils and tea with deliberate movements while explaining which details are useful for first-time guests to notice.

This is a real tea ceremony demonstration adapted into a one-hour cultural experience.

It should not be advertised as a complete formal chaji.

A full chaji is a substantially longer form of hospitality involving more stages; Chawamasudaya separately operates formal chaji-style programs lasting several hours.

Enjoy seasonal wagashi

Before or alongside the tea, enjoy one Japanese sweet selected for the session.

The sweet may reflect the season through its:

• Name

• Color

• Shape

• Ingredient

• Motif

The exact confection should remain seasonal rather than guaranteeing one fixed type year-round.

Chawamasudaya’s official basic experience includes both matcha and confectionery as well as instruction on how to eat the sweet.

Taste usucha

Enjoy matcha prepared during the experience.

The Alva program currently specifies usucha, or thin tea.

Keep this wording if every standard session uses usucha.

Do not imply that koicha, the thicker style of matcha associated with more formal tea gatherings, is included unless specifically added to the program.

Whisk your own matcha

After watching the instructor, try preparing a bowl yourself.

Learn how to use the bamboo whisk and how the movement differs from simply stirring a drink.

Chawamasudaya’s official basic program specifically includes an opportunity for guests to experience preparing tea themselves.

This hands-on portion should remain one of the main selling points.

Understand rather than imitate

The goal is not to “master tea ceremony” in one hour.

Instead, learn enough to understand what you are seeing:

why movements are deliberate, why utensils change with the season, why sweets are served before tea, and how host and guest participate together.

This makes the workshop useful even for complete beginners.

Ask questions throughout

English support is available during the experience.

Use the session to ask about:

• Tea ceremony history

• Urasenke practice

• Matcha

• Wagashi

• Tea utensils

• Guest etiquette

• Seasonal arrangements

• Traditional tea gatherings

The exact depth depends on the group’s interests and available time.

Finish with photos

Photography should take place only at the timing designated by the instructor.

This allows guests to remember the experience without interrupting the flow of the demonstration.

The current Alva program typically places photo time near the end.