Sen Genshitsu, the 15th head of the Urasenke school of Japanese tea ceremony and one of the country’s most influential cultural figures, has died in Kyoto at the age of 102, the school announced on 14 August. Born in 1923 as the eldest son of Urasenke’s 14th grand master, Genshitsu served in the Imperial Japanese Navy and trained as a kamikaze pilot. The war ended before he was dispatched, an experience that later informed his lifelong credo of “peacefulness from a single cup of tea.” After succeeding his father in 1964 and taking the hereditary name Sen Sōshitsu XV, he expanded the practice globally, conducting more than 300 tea demonstrations in over 70 countries, including ceremonies at United Nations headquarters in New York and at Pearl Harbor. In 1997 he became the first tea master to receive Japan’s Order of Culture, and in 2012 UNESCO appointed him a Goodwill Ambassador. Genshitsu stepped down as grand master in 2002, passing the title to his son while continuing his diplomatic and educational missions. His death closes a chapter for Urasenke, one of the three principal schools that trace their lineage to 16th-century tea pioneer Sen no Rikyū.