The Art of Chabana: Flowers for the Tea Ceremony. by MITTWER, Henry. With color paintings by Takashi Nomura and drawings by Yoshiko Akai - 1974.

Rutland, VT / Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1974. Signed and dated by the author on the front-free endpaper, also inscribed: To Pat Murosako & family with very best wishes always, Henry Mittwer Kyoto 1974. First edition / First printing. Decorated silk cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of fading to the spine. Henry "Seisen" Mittwer, a Japanese-American Buddhist priest, author, furniture designer, ikebana and ceramic artist. He was a Zen monk at Tenryuji Temple, a World Heritage site in Kyoto's Arashiyama district. Born in 1918, he was the son of an American father in the film industry and a Japanese mother who was a former geisha. He lived in Japan until 1940, when he immigrated to the U.S. From 1942 he spent 5 years in detention camps, he was not released until 1947. In 1955 he met Zen priest Nyogen Senzaki, one of the early proponents of Zen practice in the U.S. He returned to Kyoto, Japan in 1961. In 1965 he joined the priesthood. He served four times as president of the Kyoto chapter of Ikebana International, and published books on arranging flowers for tea practice, and several other books in Japanese, including his memoirs, a 1992 book of essays about temple life, and a 2003 dialogue with the noted author and Buddhist priest Tsutomu Mizukami about life, death and Zen titled "Jisei no Kotoba" ("Poems for Leaving the World"). He died in 2012. Pat Murosako was a Kendo Master, and graphic designer, who knew Mittwer from at least the 1960's to his death.
Murosako served as a board officer of the Kendo Federation of America, which later became the All United States Kendo Federation. Upon moving to Seattle, WA, Murosako Sensei founded the Meadowbrook Kendo Club, and in 2001 he co-founded Musokai Iaido dojo with Konno Tatsuhiko Sensei in Bellevue, WA.