Members and guests of the Chado Urasenke Tankokai Hawaii Association, led by president George R. Ariyoshi, ushered in the Year of the Dog on Jan. 21 with the Hatsudate Shiki, or first tea of the year, at the Seiköan Tea House at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.
In attendance for the first tea were Tankokai president and former Hawai‘i governor George Ariyoshi and his wife Jean; Consul General of Japan Koichi Ito and his wife Misako; Dr. Satoru Izutsu, retired admissions director and former vice dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine; past Tankokai president Akemi Kurokawa and his wife Misako; Carole Hayashino, president and executive director of the Ja-panese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i; Joanne Ninomiya, founder of JN Productions, Inc.; Dr. Dennis Ogawa, professor of American Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa; Dr. Robert Huey, professor of Ja-
panese Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa; Sheree Tamura, president of the United Japanese Society of Hawaii and Jon Tsukamoto, first vice chair of the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce.
The ceremony was conducted by teishu (tea ceremony host) Kae Pusic-Sanada and hanto (assistant and narrator) Yumiko Sayama. Guests later enjoyed an osechi ryöri lunch of traditional Japanese New Year’s foods.
