Folklife Database: Interview with tea master Atsuko Lefcourte

Item Type:	Sound
Series Number/Title	S1685
Container	6
Folder	Tapes 6-7
Item	Audio recording
Item Title	Interview with tea master Atsuko Lefcourte
Program/Event	Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education Project
Date/Date Range	08/23/1986
Collector/Fieldworker	Rosenberg, Jan
Tradition Bearer	Lefcourte, Atsuko, 1931-1998
Ethnicity/Nationality	Japanese American
Genre/Occupation	Tea masters Flower arrangers
Subject	Fieldwork Sound recordings Interviews Life histories Oral histories Asian American arts Asian Americans Japanese Americans Arts, Japanese Flower arrangement, Japanese Emigration and immigration Japanese tea ceremony Food preparation Tea masters Japanese tea masters Naming practices World War, 1939-1945 Clothing and dress Kimonos Flower arrangers
Place Name	West Palm Beach (Fla.) Palm Beach County (Fla.)
Corporate/Conference Name	Florida Folklife Program
General Note/Comment Field	Two audio cassettes. Ikebana (Way of the Flower) is the Japanese tradition of flower arranging. It originated in China in the 6th century. Lefcourte was born in Osaka, Japan where she learned the art of the tea ceremony and flower arranging. She moved to Florida in 1975. For more info on Lefcourte, see S 1644, box 3, folder 11. In the interview, she discusses learning the Japanese tea ceremony in Japan from her father; emigrating to the United States; the cultural meanings of ikebana and the tea ceremony; naming practices; effects of World War II on her family; clothing and rituals for the tea ceremony; and teaching it to others. Folk Arts in Education Project in Palm Beach County was a joint venture between the Palm Beach County School System and the Florida Folklife Program. It was conducted between 1986 and 1987 by folklorist Jan Rosenberg with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to add to existing social studies curriculum. The goal was to impart an appreciation of multi-ethnic traditions and provide a sense of place to the mobile student population. The project focused on the Florida Studies component for fourth grade students. The project consisted of field research to identify local traditions and folk artists, a series of five two-day seminars to acquaint teachers with the use of folklore and folk arts, in-school programs conducted by a folklorist and traditionalist, which included visits by local folk artists. In total, the project involved 15 schools with 779 students. Audio clips from this interview are available online.

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