One will enjoy the clear colour, taste, and aroma of sencha, the infused leaf tea. Yet the pleasure goes beyond just drinking the tea. Sencha is accompanied by a culture that has been cultivated with its consumption. 

　　　In China, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, drinking sencha became popular among the highly knowledgeable and the well-educated intellectuals, while deepening the knowledge of poetry, calligraphy and paintings.   

　　　　In the early Edo period, sencha was accepted as an advanced imported culture in Japan and later came to be favoured among those who admired the intellectuals whom acquired Chinese culture. Sencha culture was popularized from the end of the Edo period to the middle of the Meiji period, where large-scale tea ceremonies were held in multiple tea rooms that also displayed works of art.  

　　　The favourite items for these ceremonies were “karamono” produced in China. With the opening of the country to foreign trade, traffic to increase imports of utensils from China escalated for the use of sencha tea ceremonies.

　　　　This exhibition features sencha tea ceremonies from the end of the Edo period to the middle of the Meiji period and introduces a fascinating range of sencha utensils. The exhibition includes fourteen works on display for the first time, such as the gurindama (globe-shaped) teapot. We hope our visitors will enjoy the world of cultivated by those who admired the intellectual culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China.