Title: Interview with Sen Genshitsu, Grand Master of the Ura-Senke School of Tea Ceremony - A Message for Peace and the Wisdom of Living in the Age of Tea Ceremony (From the Program of NHK Kyoto Broadcasting Station on 27 and 28, 2020)

Author: Ikuro Anzai, Secretary General, Organizing Committee of INMP 2020

Abstract: This presentation is going to introduce an interview with Sen Genshitsu, Grand Master of the Ura-Senke School of Tea Ceremony, which was broadcast by Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, on August 27 and 28, 2020. The interview was conducted in Japanese, but the overview of the content is here introduced also in English in view of its importance.

Sen Genshitsu, 97 years old, is one of the most influential figures in the world of tea ceremony, which is known as a traditional Japanese cultural art form along with Ikebana (Flower Arrangement). He served as the 15th Iemoto of the Urasenke School, and now serving as the Grand Master.

The TV program introduces the war experience of Sen Genshitsu, who went off to war as a student and became a suicide bomber, and his postwar efforts for peace through the tea ceremony, as well as his thoughts on the wisdom for living in the age of pandemics.