Tokyo (AP) – Genshitsu Sen, former kamikaze Pilot trainees who later promoted peace as grandmasters Japanese Tea Treatment Officials said Thursday. He was 102 years old.
Sen had been hospitalized since collapsed in May and was unable to take a walk. Ulasenke officials said he died early Thursday after developing breathing difficulties.
As a survivor of Japan The wartime Kamikaze suicide program, which saw many of his fellow pilots take off for one-way streets, was a stubborn anti-war advocate and promoted “peace through a bowl of tea.”
“Providing tea brings peace to everyone,” he said. “If everyone feels peace, then there is no war.”
Sen became the 15th grandmaster of Urasenke School, the Japanese Tea Awards ceremony in 1964. Urasenke is one of three top schools founded in the early 17th century based on the teachings of Sen no Rikyu.
As a grandmaster, Sen has performed tea ceremony more than 300 times in 70 countries, promoting Chad’s art, tea path and global peace, earning the nickname “Flying Team Star.”
He held a tea ceremony to pray for peace in the year of the war’s ending milestone, and served tea at the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2011, paying tribute to those who died in the attacks in Japan. Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941.
Sen was born in ancient Kyoto in Japan in 1923. He was only six years old when he first took lessons to become an epic master.
His future was plagued by uncertainty during the war. In 1941, the year he enrolled at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan began a war with the United States, and two years later he was among the 100,000 students mobilized to fight.
In 1943, Sen was drafted into the Imperial Navy and began training to become a pilot for Kamikaze, but the war ended before he was unfolded.
Sen brought his tea ceremony utensils when he joined the Navy and offered a group of several trainees farewell tea before their mission.
He handed over the Grandmastership to his son in 2002, but continued to promote tea and peace until the beginning of this year.
His awakening and funeral will be held exclusively by close families, with a memorial expected at a later date, Ulasenke said.
