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Kazuko Kameda-Madar was born and raised in Japan and lived in Hawaii for 30 years. She earned her doctoral degree from the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory at the University of British Columbia in May 2011. She has also studied at Kyoto University and interned at the Kyoto National Museum to experience Japan’s traditional academic methodology.

Research Interests and Scholarship

Her area of specialized interest is early modern Sino-Japanese art history and visual culture. In 2022, her monograph, Imagery of the Orchid Pavilion Gathering: Visualizing Tokugawa Cultural Networks, was published by Brill in Leiden.
The “Orchid Pavilion Gathering” is one of the most essential painting themes in the East Asian tradition, depicting the image of a legendary Chinese purification ritual that took place in the 4th century.

Teaching and the Japanese Tea Ceremony

Additionally, she is a certified instructor of the Japanese tea ceremony in the Urasenke style. She has taught courses on visual culture and aesthetics, as well as a practicum on the tea ceremony at the University of Hawai'i – West Oahu and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa for many years.

Activity in Israel

In July 2023, she relocated to Israel and currently lives in Herzliya, where she established the Japanese Tea Ceremony Association.
This association aims to foster a profound understanding of Japanese culture, etiquette, and hospitality among the public in Israel by teaching the historical background and aesthetics of the tea ceremony.
She promotes the aesthetic contemplation of tea utensils, sweets, gardens, calligraphy, kimonos, and flower arrangements.