Tea ceremony for liquidators

This is an annual charity event held by the Kyiv School “Chanoyu.” According to the manager of the Ukrainian-Japanese Center of the National Technical University “KPI” Viktoria Myronchuk, the idea emerged when Dr. Sen Genshitsu, the Tea Grand Master of Urasenke Tea School, came to Kyiv.

“In September 2012 the Grand Master came with a visit to Ukraine. It was after the tragedy on Fukushima-1 plant in Japan, therefore Dr. Sen Genshitsu decided to pay attention to the Ukrainian liquidators of a similar disaster. The master tried to express his respect to the liquidators and victims of the tragedy through tea. After the meeting we came up with an idea to hold tea ceremonies for Chornobyl disaster liquidators once in a year. This is the third demonstration.”

This year the Ukrainian-Japanese Center gathered 10 liquidators for the tea ceremony.

The member of the Nationwide Association “Chornobyl-86” Anatolii Koliadin has worked on the power plants for 24 years (12 before the Chornobyl disaster and 12 after that). “This is the first time I’m taking part in a tea ceremony. I liked it very much. All the more so that the Japanese culture is not something strange to me: I often cooperate with the Japanese side in the question of the Chornobyl disaster. I’m acquainted with practically all the ambassadors who have worked in Ukraine. The Japanese has launched one of their humanitarian programs in Ukraine. It is gratifying that they are concerned about our problem,” Koliadin says.