Clareto Monsorate & Faris Alrushud

DUBAI/RIYADH: Tea master Sotatsu Ota has been selected as one of Japan’s six Cultural Envoys, who will spend about two years abroad from April 2021, promoting Japanese culture around the globe.

Sotatsu will host tea ceremonies in Europe and Asia, and also organize events with researchers there, according to the agency.

“For the past 30 years, I have given various lectures, events, and performances through tea ceremonies,” said the 63-year-old Japanese.

Besides his expertise in tea, Sotatsu is also known for his association with ‘Wagashi,’ a traditional Japanese sweet.

“I think that Japanese sweets and tea are the best communication tools here in Japan. We will prepare something for each theme only at that time. I will be happy to deliver what I have learned to the world.”

Sotatsu added, “Japanese culture is composed of ‘food and entertainment’, which are the factors of the feast. The Japanese tea ceremony is also established by the entertainment of the tea ceremony, which is a confectionery, and the tea ceremony, which is the act of making tea.

“I am also a scientist, so I want to hold an event with the main theme of ‘science, art, and culture’.”

Sotatsu is hugely popular in Japan and appears frequently on national TV programmes.

The versatile Japanese was born in Kyoto in 1957 and has had an excellent academic career. He graduated from the University of Shimane (department of agriculture), and also got a doctorate in engineering from the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

He is the head of Oimatsu Japanese-style confectionery, and a guest lecturer at Faculty of Culture and Information Science at Doshisha University, and at Ritsumeikan University.

In order to keep the Japanese culture alive, Sotatsu intervened in 2008 and rescued the Yuhisai Koudoukan property, a renowned teahouse in Kyoto, which was on the verge of destruction.

The tea master has taken on the role of a cultural ambassador, merging Japan’s traditional tea ceremony with its cultural outreach abroad.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, began appointing Cultural Envoys in fiscal 2003 and has since sent 143 people and 26 organizations to 88 countries.