Bonnie Sōshin 宗心 Mitchell is Seattle’s senior-most Chanoyu instructor and the founding director of the East-West Chanoyu Center. She holds a B.A. from the University of Washington and spent seven years in Kyoto, Japan, engaged in intensive study of Chanoyu. As the only graduate of the Urasenke Professional College in the Pacific Northwest, Mitchell has made enduring contributions to the practice, teaching, and appreciation of the Way of Tea.
In 1981, Mitchell was appointed by the Urasenke Foundation in Kyoto as its official representative in Seattle. For more than thirty years, she taught an accredited course in Chanoyu and Japanese aesthetics at the University of Washington, with classes held both on campus and at the Shoseian Teahouse in the Seattle Japanese Garden. Reconstructed with support from Urasenke, the Shoseian teahouse served as a studio classroom and community venue. In addition to her university teaching, Mitchell developed ongoing public programs at the teahouse, including regular Chanoyu demonstrations that continue to engage the broader community.
Mitchell contributed to the design of the tearooms at the Everett Community College Nippon Business and Cultural Institute, also played a key role the installation of the Ryokusuian Teahouse at the Seattle Art Museum where she continues to serve as an advisor.
Prior to returning to Seattle in 1981, she was granted the professional name Sōshin by SEN Sōshitsu XV. In 2008, she received the Urasenke Seikyōju (Professor Emeritus) degree, and in 2012 she was honored with a Commemorative Award from Consul General Kiyokazu Ota of the Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle for her dedication to sharing Chanoyu with the broader public.
In 2012, Mitchell founded the East-West Chanoyu Center (EWCC) and subsequently established its permanent home within the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW), located in the historic Seattle Japanese Language School building. As a longstanding hub for Japanese culture and heritage, the JCCCW provides an ideal setting for the EWCC to share the tranquil tradition of Chanoyu with diverse audiences.
The facility includes two tearooms and a preparation kitchen. Named Zuishin’an (Hut of Vibrant Spirit), these tearooms are the first public tearooms in the Pacific Northwest to offer year-round access to interactive tea ceremonies, workshops, and classes for both one-time visitors and dedicated practitioners.
We gathered on September 27, 2026 to remember Timothy Sōwa Olson Sensei—Tim—whose life moved, with unusual steadiness, from the open landscapes of Oregon toward a practice of stillness, beauty, and care.
A native of Oregon, Tim enlisted in the United States Navy. Service gave him the world in a practical way: ports, distances, and the kind of friendships that last because they are formed when people are young, far from home, and learning who they are.
Afterward he returned to study, graduating from Portland State University, then coming north to Seattle to study English literature at the University of Washington. Books remained part of him. So did the habit of looking closely—at language, at form, at what a human life can be shaped into.
In the Seattle Japanese Garden teahouse, he began the study of chanoyu with Carol, Reggie, and Glen Webb. What he found there was not a pastime but a complete world. Tea answered a deep need in him: for beauty, for history, for aesthetics, for form and discipline, and for friendship with people who loved the same things. Those facets did not compete; they belonged together, and Tim belonged among them.
He traveled to Japan three times. Once he was invited to serve as host in the national treasure tearoom at Nagoya Castle—an honor that speaks to the trust placed in his presence and his practice.
Once he submitted himself to Urasenke Kyoto’s rigorous intensive workshop. Once he went with members of the East-West Chanoyu Center and his husband Michael Lewis to celebrate the Center’s thirtieth anniversary. Each journey was a different kind of offering: hospitality, study, and community.
Tim-sensei began tea studies in 1982. In 1999 he received his tea name, Sōwa, 宗和—to harmony of the lineage —and that same year he joined the EWCC staff. He pursued chanoyu with enthusiasm and diligence, not as display but as daily life. He taught at the East-West Chanoyu Center from that time forward, and for more than twelve years he served as professor at the University of Washington’s Chado course, taking the baton from Patt Sōki Pope sensei and carrying the Way of Tea into a university classroom with the same seriousness he brought to the tearoom.
In 2001 he was awarded the certificate of Junkyoju, a senior rank of merit in the Way of Tea. Rank, for Tim, was never the point. The point was the bowl placed with intention and care, the season noticed, the guest received, the form held until it became kindness.
Those of us who sat with him remember a teacher who loved literature and loved tea, who knew that both are ways of paying attention. He gave students discipline without harshness, and friendship without fuss. He showed that a life can be made of travel and of sitting still; of Navy years and of tatami; of the Pacific Northwest and of Kyoto; of words and of silence. We honor Timothy Sōwa Olson sensei by remembering him as he practiced: with care, with form, and with an open heart toward those who shared the Way. May the friendships he made continue. May the beauty he served outlast this afternoon. And may we, when we lift a bowl, remember the man who taught us that even the smallest gesture can hold a whole life.Sōwa 宗和 Olson Sensei has been an instructor at the East-West Chanoyu Center (EWCC) since 1999 and served as the professor for the University of Washington's Chado course for over 12 years. He studied English literature at Portland State University and the University of Washington before he began tea studies in 1982. Olson received his tea name in 1999 and subsequently pursued further professional training at the Urasenke headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. In 2001, he was awarded the Urasenke certificate of Junkyoju, a senior rank of merit in the Way of Tea.
We sincerely appreciate the generous support of King County 4Culture in ‘Building for Equity’ funding for the tearoom construction, as well as ‘Arts Sustained’ support for programs throughout the year.