An Evening with Tea Master Sen So'oku & Hiroshi Sugimoto: From Sen Rikyu to Marcel Duchamp

What does Marcel Duchamp have in common with 16th-century Japanese Tea Master Sen Rikyu? Though their circumstances were continents and centuries apart, both men forged philosophy and art from elements of ordinary life. Their surprising similarities are the subject of this program, presented as dialogue between two of Japan’s most articulate practitioners of contemporary art and the art of tea. Hiroshi Sugimoto is a world-renowned artist and architect whose fascination with the tea ceremony came to life, most recently in a creation titled Glass Tea House Mondrian, exhibited this past June in Venice in conjunction with 14th International Architecture Biennale. Sen So’oku is the next grand tea master of Mushakouji Senke tea school, one of the three main schools of Japanese tea that trace their lineages directly to Sen Rikyu.