Orenburg state university

Tea ceremony — the way to yourself

Victor Mazurik, a well-known Japanologist, who was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun 2017 for the development of Russian — Japanese relations as part of a cross-year program in Japan and in Russia, paid a visit to OSU on March 15–16.

He gave lectures on “Tea ceremony in Japanese culture” and “Mysteries of Japanese culture”, listened with interest by OSU and other universities students and educators, as well as city high schools students. Both lectures were the reflections on the philosophy of the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun, whose rituals had been built on a unique world perception, not always understood by Europeans.

Viktor Mazurik is the Chairman of the Moscow Tea Tradition Association Urasenke Tankokai. The history of the Japanese tradition in Russia is noteworthy: a ritual master from Japan held a tea ceremony in the Kremlin for the political elite in 1991. Then, the parties signed an agreement to create a tea class in Russia, which Viktor Mazurik began promoting.

The lecturer told about the origin of the ceremony and its importance to the samurai before the battle, as well as to the Russians — he said it would help them to understand themselves and go back to their roots in the hustle and bustle of information consumption age.

The lecture on the Mysteries of Japanese culture, which took place on March 16 at the Palace of Youth Creativity “Progress”, continued the philosophical conversation.