Today at Tokyo Komaya, we held the “Keiko Koma Coffee Ceremony” and “Today’s Story and Gathering to Express in Poetry the Deepest Wishes That Arise as We Move Toward Full Houses for Concerts.” The Coffee Ceremony is conducted using a unique brewing method. With every cup, I feel the life of each person before preparing coffee. Since birth, I have had the sensibility to know, so as to see it, a person’s fate and state of being. I could also talk with trees and flowers and have lived my life writing poetry. As I brew, I enter into dialogue with the coffee itself, finding out how to prepare it while sensing the condition of the person who will receive it, so I brew the coffee according to how their life wishes it. Today, I also prepared yomogi daifuku to accompany the coffee. Everyone found it exceptionally delicious, finished it in no time, and afterwards felt refreshed and deeply delighted. During the Coffee Ceremony, I sense the light, the wind, and the fragrance within each person, and express them in words that naturally arise. On marbled Tosa washi postcards, I write a single word in black sumi ink. As the word is born from each person’s inner being, I believe it becomes an essential word to live by from this moment onward. I would be grateful if it may be of help.
The gathering to share our deep feelings, express our innermost wishes, and read poetry is likewise an irreplaceable and precious time in life. When we focus quietly inside, the stillness itself feels truly comfortable. As each person reads a poem, one’s genuine wishes naturally arise. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to share such invaluable moments with everyone. Within me stands an unwavering central pillar to act surely upon my wishes that arise from within and bring them into reality. Each day I will move forward to fulfillment. I have lived with a wholehearted wish for world peace. Now that I have found that when a person’s inner state changes, the surrounding environment changes and peace will be built, I hope to convey to people throughout the world that peace becomes realized when each of us lives by expressing oneself. Nothing would bring me greater joy than working together with everyone toward the realization of peace. Thank you very much for today.