Urasenke 11th Gengensai Bamboo tea scoop (1810-1877) #4808

- length: approx. 18.2cm (7 11⁄64in)

- weight: total 79g

- written on case: Yuzuru (crane at dusk)

Urasenke the 11th - Seichu Soshitsu (Gengensai) 1810-1877
The 11th generation head of the Urasenke school of tea ceremony. He was the son of Matsudaira Noritomo, lord of the Okutono Domain in Mikawa. His childhood name was Chiyomatsu, and he had various titles including Fubō, Kyohakusai, and Kan'un. At the age of ten years old he was adopted into the Urasenke school. At the age of fifty, he entered into the Buddhist priesthood and took on the name Seichu. With innovations such as the ryūrei (table and chair) style, he sought to modernize the art of tea ceremony. He died in the tenth year of the Meiji period (1877), at the age of 68.