June Exhibition: Japanese Tea Wares Exhibition, along with curations of Japanese tea tasting and wagashi making workshops
Last month in June, we exhibited a beautiful collection of handcrafted pieces, such as white porcelain tea wares, wooden lacqurewares, hand-carved woodworks and persimmon and rust hand-dyed textiles, by 4 independent Japanese artists listed as below.
- white porcelains by Chie Kobayashi
- wooden lacqurewares by Junko Yashiro
- hand-carved woodworks by Keiichi Murakami
- persimmon and rust hand-dyed textiles by Keiko Murakami
To demonstrate the use of these artisanal pieces, we have collaborated with 2 Melbourne-based Japanese artisans to curate Japanese tea tasting workshops and wagashi making workshops.
On 7th and 8th June, the founder of Japanese tea label the Cha Haus Madoka Mills hosted 4 sessions of Japanese tea tasting workshops. Our guests have experienced 4 different types of Japanese green tea, blended tea, seasonal tea and matcha produced by the Cha Haus. We're also very pleased to work with the Kyoto-based wagashi artisan Sayoko Sugiyama, who's the founder of the popular Japanese wagashi brand Okashimaru again, to provide our guests an exclusive pairing course of Japanese tea and wagashi throughout the whole tasting session using the artisanal tea wares by the above 4 Japanese artists.
In the following weekend on 15th and 16th June, we invited Melbourne-based wagashi artisan Minnie (Minako Asai), who's the founder behind MinnieSweets Melbourne, to come to Kurashi to curate her popular wagashi making workshops.
During the workshops, Minnie has given a well-explained and easy-understanding class to all of our guests. Therefore, even most of our guests had never learnt how to make wagashi before, within the 2-hours sessions they could immediately master the techniques and finished hand-making 3 - 4 pieces of wagashi by their hands. IMPRESSIVE WORKS!
At the end of the workshops, our guests had enjoyed some zen tea time pairing with the way-too-beautiful wagashi prepared by Minnie. All of their handmade wagashi were brought home to share with families.
If you're also interested in our workshops, please follow us and stay tuned to our future updates on our Instagram account (click here). You can also subscribe to our newsletter to receive any updates of events and exhibitions.
We look forward to collaborate with more artisans to deliver more opportunities to our guests to experience the humble and traditional Japanese cultures. We wish that you can find at least a piece or two of the one-of-a-kind handcrafted pieces by our Japanese artists and bring them into your daily life, which will bring your ordinary life a little bit more joy and delights!
Photo disclaimer:
All of the pictures in this article are protected by photography copyright with an exclusive ownership to Kurashi Japanese Crafts Pty Ltd. Any reuses or redistribution of photos are strictly prohibited.